


The Malfoys' Pet Mudblood

by bubbles19015



Series: The Golden Trio [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Slavery, BDSM, Bloodplay, Dom/sub, Dumbledore Bashing, F/M, Imperius, Implied/Referenced Underage Relationship(s), M/M, Master/Slave, Mind Control, Multi, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Self-Mutilation, Slavery, Weasley Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-02
Updated: 2015-02-11
Packaged: 2018-03-10 04:38:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 45,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3277022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubbles19015/pseuds/bubbles19015
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione is left behind at Malfoy Manor when Harry and Ron escape. She soon finds out that not all is as it seems and enters into a arrangement with the Malfoys to keep them all alive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at fan fiction. I hope you like it. The story is complete at 14 chapters and I might try a part 2. I plan on posting a new chapter every few days just to get some reader input. Some of the story is canon some of it I changed to suit my needs for this story. It follows the basic story line just adjusted slightly.

“Lucius, pick it up. I want to look at it.”  
“But.. but My Lord, She’s cover in her filthy blood.” Lucius said with disgust.

Voldemort spun on Lucius pointing the wand at his face. Lucius cowered. “Do you want me to cover you in your own blood?” Lucius shook his head no and moved to the girl lying limply on the floor in the blue guest room. 

It had been several hours since the Dark Lord had come responding to Bellatrix summons. He had sensed that Bellatrix had something important so he came as soon as he could but when he had arrived he found the Malfoy family in their parlor. The room was in a shambles. The chandelier had fallen and several pieces of furniture had been destroyed. Bellatrix was covered in blood and ranting furiously “how they could have escaped?” As soon as he glided into the room it was clear to him who they were talking about.

Lucius picked the limp body up around the waist and lifted her head by her hair so that his Lord could see her face. “Why is it unconscious still?” Voldemort demanded.  
“My Lord, I believe that she was hit by a stunner as Potter and the Weasley boy were escaping.”  
Voldemort looked at the girl in disgust. He pointed his wand at her and shouted “Rennervate!” The girl groaned in Lucius arms. “Your wand doesn’t respond well for me Lucius.” He growled.  
Lucius frowned “I’m sorry, my Lord.”  
The girl tensed when she heard whose voices were in the room with her. She tried to struggle against Lucius’ hold.  
“Ah, so you are a wake.” Voldemort said sneering at the girl. She tried to struggle again as he approached her. Lucius tightened his grip on her body and dug his hand deeper into her bushy hair. “I want to know where Harry Potter has gone.” He said to her as he looked deep into her eyes.  
“I won’t tell you that.” Hermione said defiantly.  
“Oh but I think you will.” Hermione didn’t really hear him say the spell. She felt it whispered into her head. “legilimens” She quickly through up her blocks thinking about the butterfly wall that she had once seen with her parents. Harry, Ron and herself had practice occluding with each other while they were searching for horcruxes. She had become quite good at mind and memory spells and had even been able to read and organize some of the visions that Harry had been seeing from Voldemort. Voldemort pushed harder into her mind, putting more power into the spell. She could see her butterflies breaking away to reveal the flower covered wall. On the other side of that would be a brick wall that she was pretty confident she could hold even under this amount of pressure. Voldemort screamed in frustration as he withdrew from the spell and cursed her “crucio!”  
Hermione cried out as every nerve in her body exploded into searing hot fire. Lucius almost dropped her to the floor but Voldemort still had his wand pointed at her. Lucius felt like a bit of a coward as he lifted her up again even as she was writhing in agony. He almost felt as though he were using her as a shield. Voldemort lifted the curse and pointed the wand at her head again saying out loud “legilimens”. Hermione was still reeling from the pain of the torture curse when she felt him enter her mind. She had read in a book once, when Harry was taking private lessons from Professor Snape, about creating false images when this type of spell was being used against someone. She began thinking of things that weren’t true. At first all she could come up with were thoughts of pain and how much pain she was in then she began thinking of other people who she saw that were in pain. Voldemort was picking through the images looking for something. She thought of Harry and how much pain the nightmares that he had been having were causing him. Voldemort latched onto that memory and tried to follow it but Hermione was able to lead him to a false memory of Harry taking a potion to cure that problem.  
Voldemort withdrew again. He looked her in the eyes studying her face. Hermione could barely hold her head up. Her scalp was aching from where Malfoy Sr. was restraining her. He took the end of Lucius’ wand and tipped her head up and hissed in her face. Hermione smirked thinking that he looked crazy hissing at her like some deformed snake. He stepped back and cursed her again. Hermione began to scream and thrash in Lucius arms. Voldemort dissatisfied with her reaction ended the curse and began stalking around the room ranting about the incompetence of the Malfoy, Black and Lestrange families.  
When Malfoy was certain that Lord Voldemort wouldn’t hear him as he was storming about the room he whispered into Hermione’s ear. “I swear to you if you cooperate I will do everything in my power to help you survive through this.”  
Hermione tensed did he really just offer to help her. She couldn’t believe it. She shook her head ‘no’.  
Lucius groaned “you must believe me.”  
Voldemort turned his attention back to them “Tell me you dirty little mudblood where did you learn that trick from?” Hermione shook her head. “Lucius, do you think that Severus would have taught students how to occlude?”  
Lucius shook his head “My Lord I do not believe he would have done that without your express permission. As you know, Dumbledore asked him to teach Potter and Severus intentionally failed at that task by your request. The only other person he has worked with is my own son, Draco. That was only necessary as you wished for Draco to be included in the inner circle meetings.”  
Voldemort nodded his head thoughtfully. He paced the room a little more before pressing his wand to his arm. Hermione felt Lucius tense as he did so. She struggled again trying to free herself not knowing what was going to happen next. Voldemort sneered at her “there are no more house elves to save you girl.” She could feel Malfoy’s breathing change slightly but he didn’t make a move as Voldemort was speaking to her. “They are all dead. You will not be able to escape from us now.” He looked at Malfoy and glowered. “Put her down till Severus gets here.”  
Lucius dropped her to the floor and began making a show of brushing himself off. Hermione slumped at his feet feeling exhausted and too weak to move away from him. After a few minutes she could hear the familiar steps of her former professor. She watched Voldemort in fascination as his demeanor changed. He seemed to lighten as Professor Snape entered the room and kneeled in front of him kissing the edge of his robes. She saw him glance her way before he was lifted by Voldemort.  
“Severus, how good it is that you were able to come so quickly.” Voldemort practically purred to him.  
“My Lord, I come as quickly as I can whenever you beckon me.” Severus said.  
“Yesss, I know you do my pet.” He hissed to him stoking his head. Hermione always marveled at how good Professor Snape was at controlling his emotions. He didn’t even seem the slightest bit unsettled by the fact that Voldemort was stroking him like he was a puppy.  
“My Lord, may I ask what has happened here?”  
Voldemort continued to stroke his head and face as he spoke. “My pet your friends have greatly disappointed me today. They had the golden trio in their grasps and let them get away.” As he spoke his anger began to rise. “Potter and the Weasley boy escaped with the help of the house elves. Taking all of the prisoners they were holding in their dungeon.” He screeched and then turned to Malfoy. Pointing Lucius’ own wand at him he said “and this blundering idiot did nothing to stop them. Crucio!” Lucius crumpled to the floor on top of Hermione. Jerking as spasms of pain surged through his body. Hermione would have felt bad for him if his weight wasn’t crushing her already sore body.  
“My Lord, if you will recall he is without a wand.”  
Voldemort ended the spell and turned back to Severus. “I need a wand Severus. His wand will not obey me properly and after all the interrogations of Ollivander I am no closer to controlling the elder wand.”  
Severus nodded his head in understanding. “Maybe another’s wand would learn to obey you?”  
Voldemort growled at Severus “I have tried other wands and none have worked.”  
“I know my lord. So it must have been some battle. I’m sorry I missed all the action.” Severus said evenly as he tried to lighten his Lords mood.  
“There was no battle.” Voldemort roared. Malfoy was rising to his feet again as Voldemort was saying this. Hermione could swear she heard him sob before he pushed himself up the rest of the way. She could see Professor Snape flinch when he looked at Malfoy. She wondered what he had seen as he was walking through the manor. “Their house elves helped Potter escape, Severus.” This time she was certain that she could see him blanch. Voldemort returned to pacing. “The disgusting little creatures had to be exterminated.”  
Hermione was horrified when she put all the snippets of the conversation together. “You killed their house elves? How could you? They were innocent.”  
Voldemort spun on her. “I did kill them and I would have killed more of them but they fled the manor.” He turned his attention back to Malfoy “and I wonder how they did that.” He said spitting it into Malfoys face.  
“Lord Voldemort. I can understand your anger but we are not lost. You have caught yourself the brains of the trio. Surely Potter won’t get very far without her.”  
“And that is why I have summoned you. She has learned how to occlude and I was wondering where she learned that from.” He said as if he were accusing Severus of something.  
Severus visibly gulped. Hermione saw it and suddenly felt as though things were going to get very bad. “Master.” Professor Snape started as he was bowing to him. “She is the brightest witch of her age. She probably read it in a book somewhere.” Hermione was nodding her head vigorously hoping she could defend her old potions master from this madman.  
“She is no witch! She is a filthy mudblood who has dared to enter our world.” He roared raising Malfoys wand to her. She stared at him in horror. She could see the killing curse forming on his lips.  
Severus stepped in front of him “Please Master, if you kill her now we won’t be able to use her to get to Potter. We can still use her but not if she’s dead.”  
Voldemort shot the curse off towards the wall to avoid hitting his favorite advisor. He looked angrily at him “Severus, her blocks are very similar to yours. Tell me you haven’t been teaching occlusion to other students” he asked.  
“No My Lord, I would not have done such a thing without your permission.” Voldemort nodded seeming satisfied with his answer. “I know that she is an intruder that she doesn’t belong here. The rest of the wizarding world will soon learn to bow to your greatness but in the mean time she has learned a great many things. I know it is unjust that she should be born with such a gift but yet she is here and is very talented. We could use her to further our cause.” Voldemort began pacing the room again. Severus waited patiently for him to work through his conundrum. On one hand he hated everything that she stood for and vehemently believed that her kind should be exterminated but on the other hand she did seem very talented and his favorite advisor was telling him to keep her alive.  
“Severus, will they try to rescue her?”  
He nodded. “When we are done with her we can let it leak out that she is alive and move her to a place where we can lie in ambush.”  
Voldemort paused “I want to know where Harry Potter is now.” He looked at Hermione and back to Severus. “Do you think that you could torture a former student and get that information out of her? Or I should find someone else to do it.”  
Hermione shook her head “Even if he does torture me I wouldn’t be able to tell you where he is. We never know where we are going next just in case one of us is snatched.”  
Voldemort growled and raised Malfoy’s wand again. “Master, she’s probably telling us the truth. I can’t imagine they would risk a preplanned itinerary especially with Ronald Weasley along with them.”  
Hermione jutted her chin out “Ronald Weasley is very trust worthy.”  
“I’m sure he is. He’s also a weak minded fool.” Professor Snape replied.  
Voldemort was back to his manic pacing again mumbling to himself this time. Hermione wondered if he had forgotten that they were still there in the room with him. “Severus I want you to try and read her. I want to know what that old fool Dumbledore has told her and why it was so important to him that she remain friends with Potter.”  
Severus nodded “I can tell you that information. He had confided in me long before I killed him that Hermione was important to their cause because she had a talent for remembering things. He recognized that talent and in the beginning of her second year he gave her an old book of memory charms. I believe that she has been using those charms to help her in her studies. In her third year she was allowed to take on a heavier course load using a time turner and the only reason that she was allowed that was because she had proven to Dumbledore that she had mastered several memory spells over her summer.”  
Voldemort growled.“Memory spells? Mind-games that’s all that old coot ever played was mind games.”  
Severus nodded. “I was glad to be rid of him.” Snape approached Hermione and Lucius. He looked at Lucius trying to read him before crouching down and looking at Hermione. He lifted his wand to her head. Again, she didn’t hear him say the spell but more felt him say it directly into her mind. She tried to block him but he was very clever and worked his way around her walls. He began digging through her memories looking for something that he could tell his Master. Finally he came to the memory of her final day at her parent’s house. Hermione began crying and shaking her head trying to dislodge him so that he wouldn’t play the painful memory for her to see. Severus watched as she performed the powerful spell that would erase her from their memories and anyone who tried to talk to them about their daughter. He pulled from her mind. He felt bad for what he had done but knew he must tell Voldemort what he had seen. “She has worked a very powerful obliviate spell and erased her parent’s memories. Anyone who tries to talk to them about their daughter will most likely be wrapped up in the same spell and forget that her parent’s ever had a daughter. It’s very creative magic.”  
Voldemort stood over them looking down at Hermione and Severus. “Something like that could be very dangerous to keep around.”  
Severus nodded as he continued looking at her. She was sobbing. “She should probably be bound somehow.”  
Voldemort crouched down next to him “Bound? How do you mean bound?”  
“You could perform a guardian spell or a slave binding spell both would work. I have books in the library from a time when slaves were still created and bought and sold. I have a few books for binding children for foster care too.” Malfoy offered.  
Severus grunted “who would volunteer for such a thing.”  
Voldemort smirked. “Lucius just did. Malfoy, I am going to give your family one more chance to prove yourselves worthy of the position I have graciously given you in my inner circle. Will you find a spell and bind her so that she cannot use her magic.” Voldemort pressed the end of Malfoy’s wand to her chin and tilted her face up to look into her eyes.  
Hermione thought of the elves and his anger towards them and then the horcruxes that Harry and Ron still needed time to find and whispered in her mind ‘obliviate’.  
Voldemort blinked at her in surprise and then stood and pulled Severus to his feet. He stroked his hair and said to him softly “I miss you at night. My bed has been so cold without you.”  
“I’m sorry Master but I have to remain at the school. The Carrows have no self-control. If I leave them alone at the school for too long they will end up killing the students regardless of their birth classes. Last week I caught one of them torturing a pureblood hufflepuff. She was only a third year student. They claimed that she was a DA member but they had no proof.”  
“I know Severus and I’m sorry that you are stuck babysitting that lot of brats but they are the next generation. I will live with my cold bed.” He smiled slyly at Malfoy “or maybe I will find a young replacement.”  
Lucius visibly paled. “My Lord, Surely you can’t be suggesting Draco. He has no stomach for this. He is too soft hearted like his loving mother.” Lucius began pleading for his son.  
“You will send him to my rooms tonight.” Voldemort turned and stalked out of the room.  
Hermione fell back to the floor that final spell draining her further. Lucius and Severus stood looking at the door that had just slammed closed waiting to see if the madman was really gone or not. Lucius grunted “Every time he comes or goes through the manor’s wards I feel like a whole is punched through my magical core.”  
“What the hell happened?” Severus asked angrily.  
Lucius sighed. “A group of the snatchers that I employ brought in the three of them only the boys looked disfigured. Bella asked Draco to identify Potter but he faked not knowing him. Then Bella decided that she wanted to play with the mudblood till HE got here. I’m not really sure what took him so long. Bella was torturing her for hours though. Before we knew what was happening, that house elf that was always causing problems, popped into the room with Potter and Weasley. They both had wands and disarmed Bella and Draco. Bella still had her arms around the mudblood.” He said motioning to the girl at his feet. “The elf dropped the chandelier on Bella making her release the girl. She tried to run for elf as it was clear they were going to disapparate but one of the men got off a stunner before she could make it to the apparition point in time. We thought the elf would come right back for her but Bella thinks the dagger that she threw might have hit its mark as they were going.” Lucius sank down onto the bed. “Lord Voldemort showed up minutes later. When he saw what had happened he went crazy and cursed all of us then started hunting down the house elves. At first he called them to him. I think Narcissa might have gone into the kitchen and freed them.”  
Severus sighed and sat on the bed next to him “Lucius, I’m surprised he didn’t kill all of you.”  
“I’m too valuable as a pureblood.” He looked over at the girl. “I’m pretty sure if I fail him this time he won’t care about my blood.”  
“Ms. Granger,” Severus called. “Are you okay?”  
She shook her head “I don’t know, do I look okay?”  
“She needs a healer.” Lucius stated. “Bella did a number on her arm carving the word ‘Mudblood’ on it. She used a spell so that it will scar permanently.”  
Severus knelt back down next to her. “Where’s Narcissa?” He asked while lifting her arm and inspecting the cut marks. The word ‘Mudblood’ was clearly scrolled in the inside of her right arm. Severus frowned.  
“She’s probably taking care of his wounded. Once the elves were gone Voldemort turned back on to us. I had Draco carry her up here while he was killing the elves. She was unconscious and then I sent him to his rooms.” He sighed. “I’ll have to figure out a way to keep him from going tonight.”  
Severus grunted. “I’m sorry Lucius.”  
He chuckled and said “and I still don’t have a wand. How am I supposed to cast a binding spell without one?”


	2. Hospitality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione learns of Malfoy family hospitality

 

Hermione could feel that she was now lying in a soft bed. She wondered when she had been moved from the floor. As her senses began coming back to her she could hear hushed whispers in the room. She moved to turn her head towards the voices. The movement sent jolts of stabbing pain through her body making her move even more, intensifying the pain. She heard a spell being cast over her and the pain dulled some. She opened her eyes to find Narcissa standing next to the bed. She looked terrible. Not at all what Hermione remembered her looking like and now that she was thinking about it and looking at those surrounding her bed they all looked terrible. She tried to sit up but her arm ached when she leaned on it.

“Try and be still if you can.” Narcissa said.

“Severus has gone to get you some healing potions.” Lucius said to her.

She nodded and wondered why they were looking at her so strangely. Laughing she thought to herself that they were probably disgusted by the fact that she was lying in one of their beds.

“What could you possibly find so funny Granger.” Malfoy snapped.

She could see he was holding her wand in his hand and wondered if she would have a chance to snatch it and escape. Hermione chuckled “the three of you look awful but what is making me laugh is that I’m obviously lying in one of your beds and surely you’re thinking that the room will have to be incinerated once I’m gone to cleanse it of my dirty muggleborn blood.”

Narcissa groaned. “I think you played your part too well, Draco my dear, if that is what she thinks we believe.”

Lucius nodded. “Ms. Granger the room will be just fine once you are gone. We do not believe that your blood is that dirty.”

She looked at Malfoy again and eyed her wand. “That’s my wand Malfoy may I have it please?”

“I don’t think that is a very good idea.” Lucius stated reaching over her to grab the wand from Draco who relinquished it easily.

Hermione thought about casting a wand less spell to disarm him but wasn’t sure her magic had recovered enough from the last wandless spell she cast.

“Why are you standing around looking at her?” Severus asked as when he reentered the room sounding annoyed. He handed Hermione three potion vials and explained “one is for replenishing the lost blood, one is for healing cuts and a third is a nutrition supplement. We can all see that you’ve lost too much weight.” He sat on the edge of the bed and watched her drink all three of the vials. “Now would you care to tell us why you have lost so much weight?”

“I should have thought that would be self-explanatory.” The four of them looked at her waiting for her to go on. “We’ve been camping in the wilderness since May. We started right after Bill and Fluer’s wedding when the death eaters attacked. At first we had food packed but that quickly ran out then we would sneak into towns and stock up. I was in a muggle grocery store when a witch recognized me. She called snatchers to the store and I barely made it out of there. After that we decided we needed to live off the land. None of us are really trained to do that though. I have a book about what’s safe to eat and what’s not but we’ve been moving around so much that we haven’t had a lot of time to forage.” She sighed “not to mention the fact that when you’re around the horcruxes too much they make you a little sick and crazy. We carried one of them with us for several weeks, taking turns. It would make me vomit whenever I ate anything. It got to the point that I just didn’t try to eat when it was my turn and for a while it was just Harry and me.”

“I’ll go to the kitchen and see if I can put something together for her to eat. Lucius, we’ll need to hire a cook now that all of the House elves are gone.” Narcissa turned and left the room leaving her with the three other slytherins.

“Lucius, you should start researching the binding spell” Severus said to him. “When you find one, or several, I will return and aid you casting it since you still don’t have your wand back.”

He wiggled Hermione’s wand and said “ah but I do have a wand now and wouldn’t be so appropriate to use her own wand to bind her.”

Severus chuckled. “Fine Lucius use her wand but I’d still advise you call me when you are ready to perform the spell. I’d hate for her wand to backfire on you and bind you further.”

“Draco, come and help me with the research. I’d like to find something that doesn’t bounce back to one of us.”

Once she was alone with her former professor she sat up “Professor you have to help me escape.” She stated urgently. “I need to find Harry and help him finish his mission.”

Severus shook his head “I’m not working for the order anymore, Granger. A lot has changed since the three of you went into hiding. They’ve fallen into disorder and they are going to lose this war.”

She looked at him horrified. “Please Professor Snape you can’t mean that. We can’t let HIM win.” She thought about the exchange between Voldemort and him. “Are you really on his side now?” She asked worriedly.

He shook his head “I will not discuss this with you.” He stated firmly and stood from the bed.

Hermione had a million thoughts running through her head but top of the list was the fact that the Malfoy’s were being decent to her and Voldemort seemed to have some love interest in Snape and they seem to be deferring most of their decisions to him. That made sense as he seemed to be in their Lords favor at the moment.

Narcissa entered the room with a tray of food floating behind her. She took in Hermione’s appearance and placed a stasis charm over the tray. “Ms. Granger, you should bath and change into fresh clothing. I’m sure I have robes from my younger years that should fit you.” She left the room again.

“The bath room is through that door.” Severus said pointing to a dark blue door. “I’ll be returning when Lord Malfoy finds a spell appropriate to bind you. In the mean time you should take advantage of their hospitality.” He started for the door but stopped and added “Ms. Granger, the Order has fallen but the war has not yet been lost. There are others fighting for the same or similar cause I’d advise you to keep that in mind while you are here.”

Hermione looked at the place where he had just been standing wondering why he was being so cryptic. Finally she pushed herself up off of the bed and went into the bathroom.

 


	3. A Visit to the Malfoy Library

Hermione sat on the couch in a stunning library with her hands folded in her lap longing to explore the thousands of books that lay before her. Earlier the bathroom had proven to be the most opulent bathroom she had ever seen. Like the bedroom it was decorated entirely in hues of blue. It was as if a blue paint bomb had gone off and colored everything. The bedding, the towels, the curtains even the carpets were shades of blue. The baby blue tub was enormous, at least three full sized adults could have fit comfortably into the tub. There was lilac scented bubble bath, strawberry shampoo and conditioner and a bottle of body wash that smelled wonderful. She couldn’t place the scent but knew that she liked it. At first she thought it odd that the room would be appointed with things that she needed or preferred but then she thought about how old the manor was and how strong the magic must be. She figured it was probably the same kind of magic that Hogwarts used to keep the kids happy when they were there. 

Narcissa had returned with a set of robes that in Hermione’s opinion were far too dressy for everyday wear. She eyed Narcissa’s clothing and realized that she probably felt like these robes were under dressing so she put them on without complaint. They had fit nicely but Narcissa, pointed her wand at her and suddenly the clothing cinched up and became more form fitting. The outfit had gone from loose and frumpy to flattering and form fitting. Hermione stared at herself in the mirror in awe. Narcissa smile at her over her shoulder. “The clothes, my dear girl, do not make the witch they merely package the witch and make it appear more valuable. Lots of very fine and expensive things come wrapped in brown paper but when you wrap it in pretty paper they appear to gain value.”

“Thank you.” Hermione said feeling slightly overwhelmed with everything so far. She ate as much of the food, that had been brought, as she could and offered to put the rest away for later.

Narcissa waved her wand and the tray disappeared. Hermione thought that was really wasteful but the had just spent the nearly a year scrounging for food in the woods. “It’s getting late, I’d like to go to the library and see how my husband and son are making out. You will join us.” Narcissa said as though it was an order and not a request.

Hermione snorted. “Really, I want to go to a library.” She jumped to her feet.

Narcissa frowned. “First off you really should do something with your hair. And second you probably won’t be able to read anything in the library.”

“My hair has a mind of its own and even though it’s been conditioned and brushed without my wand this is as good as it gets.”

Narcissa pursed her lips thinking about what to do. Her hair was growing in volume as it dried and becoming frizzier by the moment. “You cannot disapparate within the manor wards unless you possess elf magic. There are at least a dozen Death eaters between here and the Manor wards; if you try to escape they will most likely try to kill you.”

Hermione eyed her wearily. “I don’t really believe I could escape without someone to help me. I heard what the dark lord told your husband so I don’t believe any of you would be willing to help me escape. Professor Snape, who I trust, although I don’t really know why I feel that way, told me I should take advantage of your hospitality. I’m not going to try and escape right away. Can I ask why you are telling me this?”

Narcissa nodded seeming satisfied. “I’ll let you use my wand to fix your hair. I would suggest braids or a bun, something to keep it out of your eyes.” She handed her wand to Hermione.

Hermione took the wand and felt a strange surge from it. At first she thought that maybe Narcissa had done something to it to curse her and she almost dropped it. Once the feeling subsided she turned toward the mirror. Holding the wand pointing towards her head she cast a spell that Lavender had taught her to create a style appropriate for whatever the day should bring. The spell had never really worked that well for her before but it always managed to at least tame her hair down some and create a workable style. Hermione opened her eyes to find her hair perfectly braided on the sides with intricate knots. The back had been tamed down into lose curls that hung gently on her shoulders. She blinked at the mirror in surprise. “This spell has never worked so well for me before.”

Narcissa looked at the style that the spell had chosen in surprise but kept her suspicions to herself. Lucius would understand the braiding better then she would. She smiled at Hermione and asked “what spell did you use?”

“Lavender Brown taught it to me. She was a pureblood in my class. It’s called _vinciebat_ _torqueo_. Her hair was kind of curly not as much as mine though. As she taught it to me you think about what kind of event you are going to and then cast the spell. I usually get a pony tail or a messy looking up do that I have to put pins in anyway.” She tilted her head side to side. “Maybe subconsciously I was thinking about your braids suggestion. I expected a pony tail.”

“My wand is familiar with spells for correcting appearances among other things. It may have considered my suggestion on its own.” She sighed. “It’s one of the reasons that our Lord hasn’t been inclined to take it. He thinks it’s only good for fashion and healing.” She winked at Hermione as she was telling her this. “Come along.” Hermione followed her to the door and watched as Narcissa peaked out into the hall. She closed the door and turned back to her. “There are two death eaters in the hall. One is right outside your door, the other at the end of the hall. It’s been several hours since the commotion from this morning but I am certain that they all must know by now that we are holding you here. I want you to keep your eyes downcast and not give them any reason to think you are freely walking around the manor.”

Hermione smirked. “I’m not freely walking around the manor.”

Narcissa grimaced. “Yes but a normal prisoner would be locked in a cell in the dungeon not dressed like a pureblood and walking around the manor.”

“Oh I see your point. So I should act subdued.”

“Yes. If you think you can behave properly. Act as if you’ve been subjugated. Our Lord has taken his time to teach you proper respect, act as if you learned it. They won’t know what really happened while he was interrogating you so if you act like he’s broken your spirit they would believe it.”

Hermione smirked. “Proper respect” she repeated, “as if he could ever do such a thing.”

Narcissa had her wand drawn and pointed at Hermione’s chest before she even finished her statement. “You think this is a joke?” Hermione could feel her lungs constricting. Whatever spell Narcissa had cast was making breathing impossible. “This is the life of my son and my husband and everybody else that means anything to you and me.” She continued pushing the air form her lungs Hermione slumped against the wall. She was starting to feel lightheaded. “You will take this very seriously. Do you even understand what we are fighting for here?”

The room was going dark as stars started forming in her eyes. Narcissa lifted the spell just before the darkness claimed her. Hermione gasped and fell to her knees sucking in the air as her lungs reinflated. Her head felt painful and large as her blood began flowing through her veins once more. Her feet and hands felt like pins and needles were being inserted into each nerve ending. Narcissa loomed over her still looking rather angry with Hermione. From her kneeling position Hermione looked up at her and said “I’m sorry Narcissa” trying to appease her anger.

“You do not have permission to use my first name so casually. You may call me Lady Malfoy or Mistress but you may not speak to me so casually. Do you understand?” Hermione was starting to get the idea that Lady Malfoy wasn’t as nice as she seemed. She was still catching her breath when she heard her ask again “do you understand the proper way to address me?”

Hermione nodded. “Yes, Lady Malfoy I understand.”

Narcissa was satisfied with her response. “Get up and remember what I told you, head down don’t look anybody in the eyes and keep up. The library is one flight up and down at the end of the east corridor.”

Hermione nodded her head taking a more serious approach to the Lady Malfoy. She followed her out into the hall.

“Lady Malfoy.” The death eater addressed her as they stepped into the hall. Hermione kept her head down but she desperately wanted to look at him to see who he was. “Where are you taking the prisoner?”

“It’s none of your business where I am taking her.” Narcissa held her hand out motioning for Hermione to follow her.

“Lady Malfoy, I was given strict orders that she was not to be allowed to leave her room unattended.”

Narcissa turned on him. “She is not unattended I am escorting her to the library. Who gave you such orders and why are you lurking outside her door?”

The man had enough sense to seem reprimanded. “Lady Malfoy, I was given those orders by Severus Snape himself.”

Narcissa eyed him wearily. Hermione could see the other Death eater at the end of the hall was approaching them. She gently brushed against Narcissa bringing her attention to the approaching death eater. “Simmons, is there a problem?”

Hermione was shocked to hear a voice that was familiar. She glanced up just in time to see the face of a woman whom she recognized as a Hogwarts student that was a few years ahead of her. The woman saw her looking at her and scowled at her. Hermione quickly look down again but not before Narcissa saw her transgression. Simmons stood to attention and replied “no ma’am, the Lady Malfoy wants to escort the prisoner to the library. I was just telling her that we were given orders that she shouldn’t be allowed to wander the manor.”

The woman nodded her head. “Simmons, I believe the spirit of Snape’s command was that she needed an escort. As you will not be needed to guard an empty room you should probably escort Lady Malfoy and the prisoner to wherever she needs to be.”

Simmons paled as he thought about the command “Yes, ma’am I suppose that is correct.”

The woman gave Narcissa a sickly sweet smile. “I trust that you have a better grasp on the prisoner this time and that no more escape attempts will be made. I’d hate for our Lord to return and have to punish your family further.”

Narcissa clenched her fists. Hermione was amazed at her cool reply even though she had white knuckles she still sounded ever the aristocrat. “An escort would be much appreciated.” She turned to the man. “Simmons is it? Well Mr. Simmons we are headed to the library.” She turned and started towards the stairs. Hermione jumped to follow her. Lady Malfoy wasn’t much taller than Hermione but she must have had really long legs under her robes. She trotted to keep up with her and the death eater that was behind her wasn’t doing much better. They passed several other death eaters standing guard in the halls. At the top of the stairs they turned left and headed down to the end of the hall. She really wanted to look around at more than just the floor but every time she tried to look up there was another one of his followers standing guard. It was very frustrating and after her slip with the female death eater and the angry look that Narcissa had given her she decided that she should just keep her head down and follow instructions. She had the feeling that Narcissa would have something to say about the exchange with the girl from school. Hermione was feeling a bit like a recalcitrant child waiting for a punishment to be given.

Upon arriving in the library Narcissa closed the door leaving Death eater Simmons standing guard in the hall. She breathed a sigh of relief once they were safely inside. “My love, are you ok?” Lucius asked when he saw his wife looking slightly flustered.

“I don’t know what Severus is playing at but he has given orders that she not be allowed out of her room without an escort. Apparently we have fallen so low that we are not sufficient enough to qualify as adequate escorts.” She stated furiously. Then she turned on Hermione drawing her wand.

Hermione paled and put her hands up trying to block whatever spell she would send her way. “Please Lady Malfoy, I didn’t mean to make eye contact with the death eater. I was caught off guard as I recognized her voice as someone I went to school with.”

Draco stepped forward “Granger, there are a lot of people who come to the manor that we were in school with. You have to pretend that you don’t know them. They will not be happy that you are here.”

Hermione nodded “I’m sorry I’ll do better next time. I promise.”

Narcissa put her wand away angrily. “We passed six in the halls coming here. Why has he put so many guards in place during the day?”

“I think he’s just making a good show of it. You know increase security so that Potter and the order can’t make a rescue attempt.” He said motioning to Hermione. He glanced at her hair style. “What’s with the hair style?”

Narcissa smirked. “She used my wand to cast a spell to do her hair for her. The spell creates a style based on the event or circumstances that the person is in. If she were going to a grand ball it probably would have given her a fancy up do.”

Lucius chuckled. “So since she’s going to a binding it gave her slave knots.” Narcissa covered her mouth trying not to laugh but nodded her head. Hermione reached up and felt the braids in her hair feeling slightly betrayed by Narcissa. Lucius smirked at her “I think they look very pretty in your hair. Leave them be.”

She started trying to pull the braids out. Shaking her head saying “I can’t leave them in. I can’t believe you paraded me around like this. Does everyone know what the braids symbolize?”

Draco smiled. “Granger, get a grip, in a few hours or days it won’t matter. Everyone will know that you are bound to us anyway.”

She was still trying to pull the braids from her hair when Lucius snapped at her. “I said, leave them be.” She looked at him sharply with an angry retort on the tip of her tongue but when she saw his grey eyes she realized that she should just let it be for now. “Good girl.” He said.

She bristled at the praise. She wasn’t some puppy that needed to be praised. She turned her attention to the library. “Wow! This is nicer then Hogwarts. You must have thousands of books in here.” She reached her hand out to touch the spines of the books closest to her.

“No! Granger, don’t touch that.” Draco yelled at her from across the room but it was too late. The jolt of power erupted from the spine of the book knocking her back several feet. She landed ungracefully on her back. She lay looking at the ceiling for a few minutes thinking that she had never been attacked by a book before. Today was really not her day.

Lord Malfoy bent down and helped her to her feet. He sat her down onto the couch. He then proceeded to tell her that she couldn’t touch anything. A room full of books and she couldn’t touch any of them. She was being tortured. She groaned. “I should have stayed in the blue room.” She sat with her hands folded in her lap trying not to think about all the tempting knowledge that these books might have. “I could help you know. If you picked out a book that was safe for me to look at I could probably find whatever it is that you are looking for.”

Lucius laughed “I really don’t think you would be all that much help.”

“I’m sure you are underestimating my abilities.” She said gruffly.

“Here’s one father.” Draco said chuckling when he saw Hermione sitting looking grumpy. “Granger, do you even know what we are looking for?”

“No, but I’m sure I could be of some help. What is it that you are looking for?”

“We are looking for a spell that will bind your magic and not bind you to any of us, something that can be reversed. Everything that we have found so far is either permanent or binds you to us in such a way that we can feel what you are feeling.” Draco stated before returning to the book he was paging through.

“Or slave spells that bind you to one of us in a way that compels you to obey. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want to help search for a spell that’s going to bind you somehow.”

Hermione harrumphed “well I would rather look then sit here and do nothing.” To Hermione it seemed like it was hours that the three of them were looking through stacks of books and parchments. She lay down on the couch and stretched out. She heard a popping noise and sat up abruptly surprised to find that she had fallen asleep.

Standing in the middle of the library was a house elf wearing a Hogwarts pillow case. He bowed low and then said “Master Snape is saying that the Malfoys need to eat.” With a snap of his fingers a platter laden with food appeared. He snapped his fingers again and the study table was cleared. The platter floated over to the table and settled into place. Four plates appeared and the table was set. Hermione stomach grumbled. The elf smiled at Hermione “missy Hermione we are glad to see you alive. I have sad news for you.” The elf said shaking its head. “Our friend Dobby has died. Mr. Harry Potter buried him himself just this after noon.” He turned to Narcissa “Mistress Narcissa, the elves at Hogwarts are deeply sadden by the loss of the eight elves that served your family. Those that were released by you have taken refuge at Hogwarts and await your invitation to return to the Manor.”

Narcissa gasped and said “they want to come back to the Manor? What is your name House elf?”

“My name is Hinks, Mistress.” He said bowing again.

“Please tell them that I thank them for their loyalty and I will send for them as soon as it is safe for them to return.” Hinks bowed again before popping away in a blink of an eye. Narcissa turned to Lucius “I can’t believe they would consider returning after everything that has happened here today.”

“It’s what they know. Some of them have been here since the manor was built.”

Hermione stretched. “What time is it anyway?” Lucius cast a tempus spell using her wand showing them that the time was near midnight.” Hermione glanced at Draco and then back to Lucius. “Will he be back tonight?”

Lucius shrugged. “It’s hard to say he doesn’t keep us informed of his comings and goings anymore.”

After they had eaten Hermione got up the nerve to ask “did you have any luck finding a spell?”

Draco groaned. “We are not going to find what we are looking for.”

“Couldn’t we just build our own spell? Take elements that you like from the spells you found and weave them into the kind of spell you want.”

Lucius laughed and said “one does not just make a spell. The magic is very complex. You can’t just weave a spell to magically bind someone. It doesn’t work that way.”

Hermione frowned “why not? I mean someone had to write the spells that you found. Why couldn’t we just write one? Professor Snape has created complex spells and so has ‘You know who’. Why couldn’t we?”

Lucius scoffed “You don’t know what you are talking about. It takes years to study the properties of a spell you can’t just write words down and repeat them with swish of your wand and expect them to work.”

“Yes you can.” Hermione argued. “You really can do just that.” Hermione huffed. “I have a book, in my bag, which Ron was holding when they were escaping, but it’s a book about the history of dark and light magic. They used to be practiced together not kept separate. It’s a really old book, the point is it has a section about creating spells combining dark and light magic together to make the spells more powerful.”

Narcissa nodded. “I think I remember seeing a book like that in my Grandfathers library.”

“I found it at Grimmauld place last summer. Harry owns it now so he said I could take it.”

Lucius was shaking his head angrily. “No. I won’t risk a spell like that without it being tried on someone else first.”

Hermione shrugged “It was just a thought. What if He comes back before you find something?” The Malfoys looked at each other wearily. Hermione didn’t like the look of that “We really need to come up with a plan. When he comes back there is a really good chance that he is going to be angry already.”

“What do you mean he’s going to be angry? What is going to make him angry?”

Hermione shrunk down and said “well before I knew he was going to come back for you know,” she peeked at Draco and then back to Lucius “I cast a spell so that he would forget about some things but it was kind of a weak spell. Once someone reminds him that he’s forgetting the spell will be broken.”

“You What!” Lucius was on his feet yelling at her about how foolish she was for tempting her fate and risking all of their lives.

Narcissa was trying to calm him down. “Please my dear you’ll bring our guest in if you keep up your yelling.”

Lucius began pacing much like Voldemort had done earlier in the day. “She’ll get us all killed.”

“Father maybe one of the slave binding spells would work that way we could know if she was using her magic.” Draco suggested.

Narcissa nodded. “Did we find one that can be reversed?”

Lucius shook his head “No, the only one that could be reversed was if the one doing the binding passes. That one would work for everything else but not the reversal.”

“We could have the dark lord himself cast that spell. If he wins and doesn’t die it’s not likely that I’ll be free anyway. But if Harry succeeds and the dark lord dies then we’ll all be released.” Hermione said thinking that it sounded like an excellent solution to their problems.

Lucius laughed “Do you really want to trust that type of spell to that madman?”

“Well it seems to me if we put the right spin on it he would be happy to make me a slave to one of his lieutenants. Does this spell have a compelling factor to it and how much of my magic are we talking about binding? Will I be able to use any of it or will it make me a squib?”

Draco began digging through the scrolls looking for the spell they were talking about. He found it and rolled it out on the table that Narcissa had cleared. They all read over the spell translating the properties in their heads.

“I think this spell will work.” Hermione said smiling.

Narcissa shook her head. “I’m not really sure what to make of it Lucius. It sounds ok but I worry about having HIM cast it. Maybe we should consult Severus. We’ll need him to talk to Our Lord anyway.”

Draco nodded. “I think we should chance letting it go till morning.”

Hermione nodded thinking about Draco’s coming fate. “Anyway, I bet he won’t be able to leave the school until after classes have started.”

Lucius read over the spell again and frowned “I wonder what this part means “a maiden’s blood” is that literal and figurative?”

Hermione reread the part he was talking about “I think it probably just means my blood, like you will have to combine my blood with yours or Draco’s.”

Draco scrunched his nose up at the thought. “I really hate the sight of blood.”

Hermione looked at him sharply. “You’re a death eater. How can you hate the sight of blood? Didn’t you have to kill someone and bathe in their blood to get your mark or something like that?”

“I’m not discussing that with you.” He said abruptly.

Hermione felt that was a strange reply but didn’t push it any further.

Lucius stood. “I’ll send an owl to Severus. We should try and get some rest. Tomorrow we’ll have to face The Dark Lord again.”

“Lucius, what about her?” Narcissa asked worried about what they were supposed to do with her during the night.

“Put her back in the blue room, lock the door, and tell her guard that no one but Our Lord, Severus or a Malfoy is to enter the room.” He said then added “never mind, I’ll put her in the blue room and give the orders then I’ll send the Owl.” Hermione followed him to the door “You can remember the rules right? Don’t make any eye contact and don’t speak to anyone.”

“Will there be death eaters around at this time of night? Are you sure that I’ll be safe in the room alone and without my wand.”

“It’s night, most of his followers work at night.”

“So that comment about keeping his bed warm at night, when does he sleep?” Hermione asked confused.

“He never sleeps.” Draco said with disgust.

She nodded in understanding. She had seen Harry’s memories which were Voldemort’s realities but never realized who was he was in bed with. Harry had asked her not to look to just clean out the memories which she was happy to help him with. Now she worried that Harry would see Draco in those visions and what it would do to his mind. She followed Lucius down the hall to the stairs. It was true the halls were filled with death eaters. She had never realized how many witches and wizards were wrapped up in this madman's army. No wonder the order had fallen. They watched Lucius walk by with her in tow. She could hear some of their comments about her blood status and tried to not let her emotions show. The escort had changed to a young man that she didn’t recognize but he had a funny smell that made Hermione slightly nauseous. She couldn’t walk fast enough to get away from the smell. Once they arrived at the blue room she paused at the door and glanced at the man keeping from making eye contact before she spoke quietly to Lucius. “Lord Malfoy, may I speak to you inside.”

Malfoy looked at the escort then followed her inside. “What is it Ms. Granger?”

“There’s something that I didn’t tell you.” She looked around the room.

“A silencing spell is in place in this room. This is where we commonly keep prisoners who we do not wish to keep in the dungeons.”

“I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry for casting that last spell. I took a chance that he wouldn’t notice that I did it but looking back on it it was terribly impulsive. I didn’t realize your situation.” She paused waiting for him to say something but when he didn’t she went on. “I cast an obliviate spell but all I really did is nudged his mind into forgetting that the house elves helped Harry but I went one step further and suggested that he forget for a while what Harry and Ron are looking for.” She paused worried that what she was going to say next would back fire on Harry. “We know where one of them is stored. There’s no way for us to get it though so Harry decided right before we apparated near your snatcher friends that we would keep searching for the other three and come back to that one. I just thought you should know what he is going to be angry about when he comes back.” She started to turn away from him but then added “When He’s being especially cruel he opens his mind for Harry to see. Now Harry’s better about blocking out the visions and those that do slip through I’ve been helping him forget them but I have seen what he likes to do in bed and If I had known my spell would distract him and put him into that mood I would have never risked it. Again I am sorry.”

Lucius didn’t respond to her apology instead he turned and walked out of the room. She could hear him in the hall giving the instructions to the guard as her door slowly closed.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

Hermione woke the following the morning to the smell of food waiting for her. It smelled delicious so she climbed out of bed and made her way into the bathroom to take care of he needs before eating. She had slept in the robes that Narcissa had given her because she didn’t have anything else to wear and she was afraid to sleep in the nude with the current occupants of the manor. She looked at herself in the mirror as she removed the robes. Even though she had slept, her hair was still in the same hair style from the day before, it was still perfectly braided. She sighed and began pulling the braids out and brushing her hair. The scar on her arm was prominent and she tried to not look at it but it stuck out terribly against her pale skin. The hot water of the bath was relaxing and she allowed herself a few minutes to reflect on everything that had happened over the past few days. As she was stepping from the bath the door to the bathroom swung open. Severus stood in the door way staring at her. She scrambled for a towel to cover herself.

“Don’t bother.” he grunted. “I’ve seen it before.”

She frowned remembering back at Grimmauld place when the order was held up there that he had walked into the bathroom on her several times when she was showering. They both had stood in shock staring at each other. Him with a towel wrapped around his waist and her completely nude and soapy. “That doesn’t mean I want you looking at me again. Why don’t you ever knock?” She said wrapping the towel around her body.

“Get dressed. We need to discuss some things.”

She nodded “I’ll be right out.” She dried herself quickly and put the same clothes on from yesterday. They adjusted themselves as she settled them into place. Taking the hair brush she brushed it out and then tried to secure it in a loose bun at the base of her neck. It wouldn’t stay so she finally gave up on it. When she walked back out to the bedroom section the four of them were waiting for her. “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.” She said politely. She took a seat at the table where the food tray had been set. She remembered now that that was what had woken her up in the first place and she was starving. “I’m usually up earlier than anyone getting us ready to move on to the next place. I set a tempus charm with my wand so that it wakes me.” She eyed the covered dish hungrily.

“Eat.” Lucius commanded.

She nodded and began eating. Severus began speaking once she had taken a few bites. “I read the spell that you want to use to bind her. I don’t think that it will work for her.”

Hermione swallowed. “Why not?” She asked.

“Well for one it calls for Maidens Blood to be used during the final phase. I’m pretty sure it’s referring to the slave that you are binding. It’s for a female slave. It expects that said female will be a virgin.”

Hermione paled. “I don’t think that will be a problem.” She said under her breath.

“It might be a problem if the spell backfires.” Lucius stated. She could tell that he was feeling frustrated and angry with her already.

Hermione shrugged as her face turned red. “I can assure you it’s not going to back fire.” Draco began laughing at her making Hermione feel even more embarrassed.

Narcissa asked “Draco, what’s so funny.”

He snorted as he was trying to catch his breath. “She’s never had sex before. She’s always been too deep into books she never dated anyone. I always assumed she was fucking one of the trio but I guess I was wrong.”

Hermione turned an even darker shade of red. “I wanted to wait till we were married and Ron respected that desire after Harry had lengthy talks with him. He tried to persuade me otherwise, told me I was being old fashion but Harry eventually shut him down. Now we’re waiting till after the war to get married.”

Severus eyed her suspiciously. “I saw you date that McLaggen boy and the quidditch player, Krum.”

Hermione shook her head “I went to the dinner party with Cormac, he was all over me. Harry had to finally step in and say something. Before that I went to the Yule ball with Viktor but I never did anything with him either. Actually Harry caught Krum being too feely with me one day and hexed him. Later I erased his memory of the cheap feel and the hexing. We kept chatting and agreed we’d write each other but once he was gone I stopped sending letters and so did he. I was raised that a lady waits for marriage and that is what I plan on doing.”

“You are trying to tell me that you were living in a tent with two teenage boys for the past several months and nothing happened?” Lucius asked her.

She shook her head. “Ron knew I wanted to wait and Harry has a lot on his mind. He really isn’t interested in me either.” She eyed Draco knowing that he’d be of more interest to Harry and decided to share that information. “Actually he has had a bit of a man crush on Draco. He’s been infatuated with him since second year after we used the polyjuice potion to get into the slytherin common room. He thought you were in trouble when he followed you into the bathroom. When he saw you crying he wanted to comfort you but ended up dueling with you instead. He thinks there might be another side to Draco and he wants to know what that is.”

“Potter has a crush on my son?” Hermione shrugged. “So you really are a virgin?” Lucius asked shaking his head. “She really couldn’t have fallen into a worse pit of vipers. If they knew she was they’d make a party out of deflowering her in front of everyone and then take turns with her.”

Draco put his hands up “Stop father I don’t want to think about that. And Hermione, I was more than physically injured that day when Potter caught me being weak. I was mortified that my crush had seen me like that and then he nearly killed me.”

“Really you’ve had a crush on him too? I can't wait to tell him.” Draco nodded. Hermione frowned, turned to Severus and asked pleadingly “Professor Snape you wouldn’t let them do that to me would you.”

“I may not have a choice.” Severus stood and walked to the window looking out over the gardens. He was thinking of possible ways to handle this situation. If anyone found out they’d surely tell Voldemort and he’d think it amusing to let his followers rape her. If he told Voldemort he could probably convince him to cast the spell to seal her to one of the Malfoys but then if that Malfoy slipped up Hermione would surely pay the price. He’d have to give him a piece offering, something that he could say ‘Look at what they have managed to do with her already’. Voldemort would be pleased maybe even pleased enough to gain them some favor. He turned back to the family. “The three of you are already treading on thin ice with Our Lord. Lucius that slip up at the ministry, then the order getting the information that only you should have known and now not being able to find or create a spell to break the wards at Hogwarts. Narcissa, he’s angry that you cannot even cast the simplest of hexes, although, he values your healing abilities he feels that you are too soft and he blames you for making Draco just as soft. Draco he still hasn’t forgiven you for freezing up when it came time to kill Dumbledore. You have redeemed yourself only slightly by killing that blood traitor a few months ago but the only thing that is keeping your family in his inner circle is your good standing in the pureblood society and even that is slipping. I could probably sway him to accept this plan if I had some sort of offering to give him.” He looked at Hermione. “Is there anything you’d like to share with your new Masters?” She shook her head no. He addressed all of them “she will have to be treated like a slave. If you slip up and one of his followers reports back to him that she is being treated like an equal he will most likely come and punish all of you. It will not be easy but until we find a way to finish this war we will have to do what we can to stay alive. Do you think that you can handle this Hermione? It’s going to be degrading. You will be punished for any transgressions but under their umbrella you will probably live at least as long as they do. If you can all work together I’m sure you can survive this war.”

Lucius nodded and said “Hermione, You will tell Severus what you told me last night. That should be something that you can give him, Severus. It will show how we’ve been able to gentle information out of her and hopefully keep one of his other interrogators away from her.”

Hermione shook her head “Please, I don’t want to tell him. It will make it more difficult for Harry.”

“Girl you will tell him now or I will be forced to punish you again.” Narcissa was fingering her wand as she spoke.

Hermione shrunk away from Lady Malfoy. She looked at Severus and then at the Malfoys. Draco had an expectant look on his face, Lucius had his angry face on again and Narcissa now had her wand in hand. “Which part did you want me to tell him?… Master Lucius.” She added in at the last minute agreeing with their plot.

“I think it would be best if you told him which horcrux you have found that Harry can’t get. The one they are planning on going back to later.”

Hermione nodded. “Helga Hufflepuffs cup is in a vault in Gringotts. We’re not sure which one but being that its Gringotts Harry figured that we’d keep looking for the other three and come back to it.”

Severus paled “How did you find out about that? I don’t even know about that?”

Hermione shrugged “HE shares memories with Harry either intentionally or unintentionally either way. Harry and I look at them and occasionally Ron will look too, he’s not very good at it though. Well in any case Ron recognized the cup from a picture near the Quidditch trophies display case at Hogwarts. We looked at the memories again and realized that HE must have turned it into a horcrux. In any case that one is on a shelf in a vault at Gringotts.”

Severus smiled “see this is good information. He will be pleased that you were able to coax it out of her. It will make him happy that he decided not to kill her yesterday and even more pleased that he entrusted such an important task to you.”

Lucius nodded. “I am glad. I hope it doesn’t come back on us though. What if the information we give him impedes Potter on his quest.”

Severus waved him off. “I wouldn’t worry about that too much. I’ve seen Potter work. There is nothing that we can do one way or the other that will affect the boy who lived.” Hermione felt sick to her stomach. She felt like she just sold her best friend out to save her own life.

“When will you speak to him about this?” Lucius asked.

Severus smiled. “I can call him whenever you are ready.”

Narcissa looked at Hermione. “I would prefer that she be dressed. Obviously we can’t treat her like a pureblood but how degrading are we going to have to be with her?”

“I suppose part of that will be up to Our Lord and you and her. If he wishes her to be kept naked then surely you wouldn’t deny him that wish.” Hermione felt like she might faint. “Although, he seems fairly disgusted with her he’ll probably be happy to look at her as little as possible. I think, Narcissa, you should plan on doing what you need to do.” She nodded her head. Hermione thought that the Lady Malfoy wouldn’t have any trouble at all doing whatever it was she needed to do to keep her family alive.

“Cissy, I think she should be wearing something a little simpler for when he is called for our meeting.” She nodded in agreement. “And I think it would please him if she did her hair like it was last night. Don’t you?”

“Yes. I do think he would enjoy that.” She left the room to find something less formal for her to wear.

Severus was staring out at the garden again. Hermione wondered what he was looking at she stood and peered out the window. “What are you looking at?”

Severus sighed. “Lucius owns a heard of unicorn, it was just at the back of the field. They’ve disappeared into the forest again.”

Hermione looked out the window. “I saw the unicorns in the forbidden forest once. Hagrid told me that it was good that I could still see them.”

Severus frowned “I am sorry that you won’t be able to see them anymore. They are quite beautiful.”

“Maybe I can see them once the war is over. There will be time to search them out before I get married.”

Severus turned to her giving her a perplexed look. “Hermione you do realize how the Maidens Blood is obtained don’t you?”

Hermione looked at him puzzled. “I figured you’d make a cut and that’s how it would be gotten.”

Severus shook his head “it’s more of a tear then a cut.”

“But couldn’t it be a cut?” He raised an eyebrow at her questioning her with a look. Realization dawned on her. Of course it had to be Maiden Blood it was a really old spell written in a really old dialect. All the old magic dealt with purity and chastity and things like that. She looked at both of the Malfoy men and back at Snape. “But you can’t do that. Please there must be some other way. As I’ve said I wanted to wait till I got married.”

“I’m afraid it’s standard spell practice for a spell that is that old. It’s always the maiden blood from first penetration. Actually these spells are illegal by the ministries laws.” Professor Snape informed her slipping into his standard teaching persona.

“No no no. I can’t go through with this then. I’m sorry but I can’t. I didn’t turn boys that I love away so that I could give it up to a Malfoy.” Hermione began to shake. She couldn’t do this. It had seemed so simple when it was just some blood being drawn but this was sex. She had wanted to wait for that special someone to give her virginity to them on her wedding night. She looked at Lucius and then to Draco. Draco didn’t look like he was all that happy about this decision. Maybe she could sway him to find another solution. “Draco, don’t you see that we can’t do this?”

“The decision has already been made Ms. Granger. It’s already done. You can’t stop it now.” Lucius Malfoy was saying to her already pressing his authority over her.

She was still shaking and having trouble breathing when Narcissa entered with a new dress. “What’s got her so upset?”

Hermione dropped to her knees. “I can’t. I can’t do this, I just can’t.”

“She’s having second thoughts about losing her virginity.” Draco said sadly.

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at her. “Ms. Granger you will pull yourself together this instance.” Hermione tensed remembering the punishments that Narcissa liked to give out. “I don’t think I need to remind you of the position we have been placed in due to your failed attempt at escape. I am sure you understand the mechanics of what is going to be done. You have the easy part; all you need to do is be present. Lucius will be doing all the work.”

“Lucius?” She buried her face in her hands feeling even more mortified that the older Malfoy would be doing the deed.

Lucius grunted “Trust me girl I am no happier about this then you are. If we had found some other way…” He trailed off as if he were thinking of other ways.

“I don’t know how I can do this.” Hermione said trying to gain her composure.

“You’ll be fine, Hermione. You’re a Gryffindor. When the time comes your courage will come to you and you’ll be able to do what needs to be done.” Severus was tiring of her dramatics. “Narcissa, I will go and message Our Lord. If you wouldn’t mind completing the preparations for his arrival, I’m sure he will want to hold council in the ball room.” Severus stormed out of the room.

“Hermione, get changed.” Narcissa tossed the slip style dress at her and followed Severus out of the room.

She held the dress to her chest nodding her head. Sobbing she asked “What do you think will happen?”

Draco pulled her to her feet pushing her towards the settee. “Sit.” He commanded to her. “Granger, generally when the Dark Lord comes he holds a council meeting, all of the Inner circle that are at the manor attend. I’m pretty sure considering the nature of the information that you provided that part will be done in private. However, as this bonding thing will be treated like a reward for my father he will invite them in to watch.” Lucius was nodding his head as if he was deep in thought. Draco waited to see if he had anything to add before he continued. “Once all that are here have gathered, he’ll make a show of telling them how great and loyal my father is and how he was able to get valuable information from you. Then he’ll send for you. Once you are present he’ll probably gloat that he has the information that you gave us just to rub it in your face. Then he’ll announce that he’s giving you to my father as a reward and that he will do the honor of binding you to my father.”

Hermione was still shaking but nodded her head in understanding. “So all those people will be watching us have sex?”

Draco nodded “He’s a bit of a voyeur. He likes to watch among other things.” He said waggling his eyebrows at her. She gave him a little smile. “He regularly makes his men fuck at meetings.”

Lucius grunted. “Language Draco.”

Draco smirked. “Imagine how much the others death eaters harass the one that can’t get it up during that kind of pressure.”

Hermione looked at him horrified. “That’s awful.”

Getting serious again Draco nodded. “Yeah I know.”

“Draco, has that happened to you?”

“Don’t answer that son.” Lucius snapped.

Hermione turned and looked at Lucius “that’s not going to happen to you is it?”

Lucius shook his head. “I’ve learned how to separate myself from it. It’s not pleasant though.” He nodded to her. “Do as you were told and get changed.” Obeying she stood and went into the bathroom.


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

Voldemort glided into the blue room where the Malfoys were waiting with Severus and Hermione. The Malfoys stood upon his entry and bowed to him as he entered the room. Severus knelt and kissed his robes. Hermione stood as directed wondering why Severus was the only one that was allowed to kiss his robes. Voldemort ignored her and the Malfoys as he spoke to Snape. “Ssseverus.” He purred “It’s good to see you. I must say I was surprised to receive your call from the manor. I thought you couldn’t get away from Hogwarts.”

Severus bowed again. “My Lord, this morning Lucius contacted me saying he had pulled sensitive information from the mudblood girl. So of course I came directly to the manor with your best interest in mind.”

“Sensitive information, what could she know that is considered sensitive to me?”

Severus motioned for Malfoy to step forward. He bowed waiting for Voldemort to acknowledge him. When he didn’t seem like he was going to Severus spoke again “Lord Malfoy, please tell us what the girl said to you last night during interrogation.”

Hermione shouted out "no! You can't tell him that." Draco and Narcissa took hold of her arms holding her in place as Lucius spoke to their Lord.

“My Lord, after questioning the girl late into the night she finally told us what they have been doing in the woods. She confessed to me that they have been hunting for your horcrux with clues that Dumbledore left them. She also confided in me that Potter knows where one of your horcrux is stored. That he had decided that morning, before they apparated to where the snatchers found them, that since it was in a place where it is unreachable they were going to keep looking for the others and come back to that one. He knows about the cup of Helga Hufflpuf. He feels it’s unreachable as it’s stored in someone’s vault at Gringotts.”

Voldemort turned to Hermione with a strange expression on his face. Hermione suspected that he was just now remembering that Harry was looking for the horcruxes. She struggled not to let her amusement show on her face. She tried to look away but he kept her eye contact. “How did Potter learn of the cup?” He asked her spitting as he spoke to her.

She was finally able to look away but not wipe the spittle from her face as Draco and Narcissa were still holding her arms. The feeling of his spit on her cheek was slightly nauseating but she managed to blurted out. “He saw a memory. I think it was a memory of yours and it didn’t make any sense to him so Ron and I both looked. Ron recognized the cup from a picture that was near the quidditch trophy case in Hogwarts. We did a little research and figured that was what it was.”

“Who’s vault did you see the cup in?”

Hermione shook her head. “We could only see it sitting on the shelf in a Gringotts vault. That’s why we didn’t go after it.”

Voldemort hissed at her. She tried to pull away form them but they continued to hold her in place. “What else did she tell you Lucius?”

Lucius tensed. “My Lord, apparently when you were sharing your experiences with Potter in an attempt to upset him she was helping to remove the bad memories from his mind. She has taught him how to block out your visions.” Hermione wanted to scream that that information wasn’t part of the agreement but she could see that Voldemort was pleased with the addition.

“My Lord, they have also found a slave binding spell that will suit your needs. If you’d like to examine it I have it here.” Severus offered trying to move along so that he didn’t fret over Hermione’s abilities.

Voldemort looked at the parchment “Severus this requires a third person to cast the spell.”

Severus nodded. “I thought you might want to do the honors.”

“Please Professor Snape; I don’t want to be bound.” Hermione whined giving her best acting performance.

Lucius snapped at her “quiet mudblood.” Hermione cowered away from him when he snapped at her.

Voldemort nodded. “Severus, you still think that they can control her?" He nodded. "Why should we even keep her alive?”

“My Lord I’m sure that she will be useful and the Malfoys have even, in just a night, managed to teach her some respect. I’m sure if she is bound to Lucius he will be able to keep her under his control.”

Voldemort nodded. “I am pleased that you have managed to extract this information from her and I would like to know more. Would it please you to have a slave?” He said to Lucius.

Lucius smirked. “I have never had one before but I have always wanted a pet.”

Voldemort laughed. “Yes, make her your pet. I will give her to you as a reward for extracting the information.”

Lucius bowed to him. “You are very generous My Lord.”

“Yes, Yes I am.” Voldemort crooned. He turned to Severus “You were right to contact me regarding this situation. Potter has already destroyed three of my horcruxes. I do not wish for him to continue doing so.” Severus bowed. “That particular item seems out of reach to him though.” He seemed deep in thought for a moment. “Call my inner circle. I wish for them to see Lucius receive his reward.” He frowned at Severus and soothed “you won’t be jealous that Lucius has the mudblood as a pet will you?”

Severus kept himself from showing any emotion. “My Lord, if it pleases you to reward Lucius then who am I to say different.”

Voldemort purred to him. “Ah but I know how much you enjoy young mudbloods. Especially ones that are too smart for their own good.” He glanced at Hermione. “And didn’t you once tell me that you would enjoy having her in your bed but that the Potter brat interrupted your kiss?”

Severus smiled slyly. “Yes, he did interrupt us. You know me too well My Lord.”

Voldemort nodded. “yes I suppose I do.” He stroked his cheek. “ _excitare_ _ad_ _me_.”

Severus’ eyes went wide as Voldemort cast an arousal spell over him. He sputtered out “thank you My Lord.” Knowing that Voldemort would think that him being painfully aroused for the next few days was a gift.

Voldemort continued petting his cheek. “You will find your way into my bed soon. I forbid you to find pleasure anywhere else but there.”

“Yes, of course, Master.”

“If you please me I will allow you time to play with Lucius’ new pet. I know she’s a little older now then you usually prefer but I think you will enjoy her just the same.” He swept from the room without saying another word.

Once he was gone from the room everyone visibly relaxed. Draco and Narcissa let her go and Hermione began scrubbing at her face. “Professor Snape, what did he mean by me being too old for you?” Hermione asked thinking that he was really too old for her not the other way around.

Narcissa frowned. “Ms. Granger you do not need to know that information.”

“Mother, I think that she should be told. She’s going to find out eventually anyway.”

Snape groaned. “I had to make him believe that I’m a pedophile in order for him to place me at Hogwarts. If you can believe it he thinks its a reward for me and that kiss that we shared last summer was the catalyst. He thinks I want to be at Hogwarts so that I can be near children.”

“It’s disgusting is what it is. Fowl and disgusting what you had to do to stay at Hogwarts. Severus you’re practically a saint. We know that you are only there to protect our children.”

Severus nodded. “I appreciate that Narcissa.” He turned to Hermione. “When the war is over they will come and form a lynch mob to string me up by my balls even though I have never touched a child in that manner. You are the youngest that I have ever even considered and you’re much more mature than your years.”

Hermione smiled slyly and said “I thought you forgot about that kiss.”

“I almost did but Harry said something strange to me before I left, he told me to keep my hands off of you. At first I thought what in the world was that boy talking about but then Dumbledore uncovered it and told me the same thing. That you were too young and that I should wait till the war was over. Now, I guess, that that was your handy work?”

Draco chuckled and said "so Harry has been cock blocking for you all these years huh? I'll have to remember to thank him for it, that is, if this plans does save our lives."

Hermione frowned. "I hadn't thought about it that way but yeah I guess he has."  She smiled at Snape “Professor I bet if Dumbledore hadn’t revealed it to you, you would have forgotten it. If I survive this I will fight for you. I won’t let them touch your balls.” She said laughing.

“I’m glad you can find humor in all of this. I have to organize the meeting. I’ll have someone who is working with me escort you down to the ball room when we are ready for you. Do try and hold yourself together and not make a scene.”

 


	6. Binding and death eaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hermione is bond to Lucius and learns the parameters of the binding spell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING** this is the first of two rape scenes in this story. In my opinion it's not terribly graphic but it might be a trigger to those that are sensitive to that sort of thing. Hope you enjoy it.

 

The ball room had more people then she had expected in it. As rehearsed, she was struggling with the escorts as they drug her into the room. She recognized both of them, one was Mr. Simmons and the other the stinky guy from the last night. She still didn't know his name but now she knew that he was a werewolf from the Greyback pack and that terrified her. Lucius and Severus stood at the head of the room next to Voldemort who was sitting on a strange throne like chair. Off to one side Narcissa stood with Draco. As she was pulled into the room the death eaters parted allowing them to pass through freely. She caught sight of Bellatrix and the other man who had been here yesterday morning. Neither of them looked happy. It seemed like forever ago but it had only been a little over a day since she had arrived at the manor.

She was pushed forward by the men nearly falling to the floor. She scrabbled to stand and looked around nervously thinking that this could go very bad and she was not going to be able to defend herself. Voldemort spoke “Friends thank you for coming. Today Lucius has pleased me.” Cheers went up around the room. Voldemort paused letting them rejoice. “He has broken the mudblood and forced her to reveal a very important piece of information to me and thusly I am awarding him. He will be given the mudblood as a slave. She will be his pet and no one will touch her without permission either given by me, Severus or Lucius himself. I will bind her to him now using the _ut_ _filia_ _tua,_ _servus_ spell.” He gestured to Lucius. “Lucius, if you will being.” He drew out Lucius’ own wand and began reciting the spell.

Lucius stepped forward towards Hermione, who backed away from him, her flight instincts taking over but the death eaters pressed her forward. He reached out and grabbed her arm pulling her to him roughly. Hermione squeaked. She hadn’t expected him to be as strong as he was and he surprised her. She started to panic even more as he turned her so that her back was to his chest and pushed her down to her knees. Hermione was now crying real tears, not fake acting ones like she had planned, as she tried to find her courage but everything was moving so fast. Lucius pulled the loose fitting robes up around her waist and freed himself from his own robes. Hermione felt the heat of his flesh on her backside bringing her back to the moment, she started to struggle again. Lucius gripped her hips roughly holding her in place. She was sure to have bruises there later. She cried out when he thrust forward missing his mark. She knew he did it intentionally signaling that he was going to penetrate her but that didn’t make it any easier. She tried to jump forward to get away from him but with his firm grip on her hips her escape attempt only managed to position herself with her arms out in front of her and her hips up in the air. She looked up at Severus in a panic and pleaded with him “Please help me.”

The death eaters in the room laughed at her pleading to Severus. He smirked at her, reached down and placed a hand on the back of her head gripping her hair roughly, forcing her head to the side and holding her face to the floor effectively holding her in place. From this angle she could see Voldemort, Severus and, if she strained her eyes to the side, Lucius. Lucius was finally in position and pressed the head of his cock through her folds. Without any further warning or preparation he thrust forward burying himself to the hilt tearing through her maidenhood and making her cry out in pain as her tears continued flowing as freely as ever. Again cheers went up around the room. Hermione felt a warming sensation building in her magical core. She glanced at Voldemort, he was still reciting the spell. She realized that the warming sensation was the spell taking affect with the drawing of her blood. Lucius continued thrusting into her slamming against her body making her cunt ache terribly. She glanced back at him and could see that he was feeling the spell also, he had a distant look on his face as though he wasn’t even in the room with her. Her head was hurting almost as much from how Severus was holding it down on the floor. When she glanced his way and met his eyes eyes she could see a strangely intense look in them almost as though he was enjoy himself. It sent shivers down her spine.

Voldemort ended the spell. “It is done Lucius. You may finish inside of her.”

Hermione cried out again when she heard him say that thinking that she would rather he didn’t. Lucius thrust forward once more and she felt his hot seed spurt into her burning her insides. She felt awfully full as he rested on her back for a moment but then he slipped from her body and she felt the rush of their combined fluids gushing from her body. It felt icky and wet making her retch and if Severus wasn't still holding her down she probably would have vomited. He rose straightening his robes and then bowed to Voldemort and said “Thank you My Lord, you are indeed generous.” Severus released her head and stood with him.

“You may take your prize to your room. I am sure you will want to work on her behavior. I will be expecting regular updates on her progress. She is to be kept with you or your family. What I told you yesterday still stands. She is your responsibility her actions directly affect you so I suggest that you train her well.”

Hermione continued to kneel with her head pressed to the floor even though Severus had released her. She was till sobbing uncontrollably and trying to make sense in her head what had just happened to her. It had all moved so fast. Lucius reached down, grabbed the hair at the back of her head, and pulled her to her feet. “My Lord, I will not disappoint you in this.” He led her from the room with his hand still buried in her hair. It made it difficult to walk not to mention that she really hurt in her privates. Narcissa and Draco followed him out of the room. She could hear the cheers of Voldemort followers as they left. She felt as though she might vomit again as she was sick to her stomach thinking about the fact that they had just watched her being raped and were celebrating it.

He pushed her forward nearly making her fall again as he released her hair. “Follow me slave.” He ordered brusquely.

Hermione regaining her footing rushed to follow him through the manor. Draco and Narcissa were just a step behind her. They went up three flights of stairs and turned right. Hermione recognized the route and realized if they had turned left they would be in the library. He stopped half way down the hall.

“Listen girl.” He bit out. Hermione was following the pervious orders of keeping her eyes down and not making eye contact with anyone. She was till sobbing but when she heard him speak to her she tried to hold it back sniffling. “Look at me. I don’t want to have to repeat myself.” Hermione looked up and wiped her nose on her sleeve. There was a guard standing a few feet from where they had stopped that she glanced at briefly before she looked to Lucius as she tried to hold back her sobs. “This is the family wing. The first two suites are currently unoccupied.” He motioned to the doors at the top of the hall. “The second door down is Bellatrix’s suite, across the hall from her is Severus.” She glanced at his door. “Draco is next to him and Narcissa suite is across the hall from Draco, next to Bella’s room. My suite, the main suite, is at the end of the hall. There are doors that connect all the rooms by way of the sitting rooms. Come” he commanded. She followed him down the hall. His door seemed to swing open without command. Hermione realized that he must have used a wordless spell. Once inside his rooms he collapsed down onto an overstuffed chair. Draco slid down onto the couch while Narcissa settled on the edge of the settee. Everyone seemed to be breathing a sigh of relief. Hermione stood staring at them in shock. Her body ached from what they had just done and she felt wet and gross. Her eyes were burning from her tears and they seemed to have forgotten she was there. Lucius glanced up at her. “What are you staring at?” He snapped at her.

Hermione shook her head and said in a broken voice. “I’m sorry I’m just feeling a little bit shocked. What do we do now?”

Narcissa cleared her throat. “Just go and get cleaned up, we’ll discuss things further when you’re done.”

She looked around the room it wasn’t exactly what she had expected. She wasn’t really sure what she expected but she had thought his rooms would look more ‘Slytherin’. The room was decorated in rich dark colors with red wood floors. The floor in the seating area was covered with a tapestry style rug done with a red and silver color scheme and it had various scenes of magical creatures running around on it. The furniture was a bluish silvery color; there was the overstuffed arm chair that Lucius was sitting on, a long couch that could probably fit five adults where Draco and taken a seat, a one arm settee that Narcissa perched on the edge of. There was also two high back arms chairs positioned near a large fire place with lighter wood end tables and coffee tables placed around the sitting area. Silvery grey curtains hung over the windows and in front of the window on the right sat a small dining area. To the left side of the room was a desk covered in books and scrolls and behind that was a full book case. Hermione wrapped her arms around herself nervously looking around the huge room. There were several doors into the room but none that she could tell were a bathroom door. She didn't really know if she should explore on her own so she asked “Um, where should I do that at?” They were acting strangely which she thought was odd being that she was the one that was just raped and bond to a known murderer.

“In the bathroom of course, Granger.” Draco said exasperated.

“Well I figured that Malfoy but where is the bathroom.” She retorted back frustratedly as she stomped her foot.

Lucius snapped to attention “first off you will not address my son in such a manner. Second you will not take that tone of voice with anybody.”

Hermione shied away from him “I’m sorry.” She said contritely her tears starting anew.

Lucius nodded excepting her apology. “The bathroom is through the bedroom, first door on the left” he said motioning to a door on the left side of the room. Hermione left the room leaving the three of them alone. She was glad to escape their presence even if it were just for a few minutes. “We need to discuss how we want her to behave.” Lucius said in frustration.

“We should have taken time to discuss that before this binding was done. You told Him that you always wanted a pet. What were you thinking? He’s going to expect that we treat her like a dog or something.” Narcissa bristled.

Lucius smiled. “I have always wanted a pet, maybe not a pet human, but a pet.”

Draco laughed. “a pet? Like one that you can dress up and dote on.”

“Yes. That does sound fun.” Lucius smiled wistfully.

“Have you gone mad?”

Draco laughed. “Mother, I can see the appeal. It could be fun. We can give her make overs and dress her up, parade her around. Hand feed her.”

Lucius smiled. “that’s my boy. You’ve got the idea.”

“We are not doing that.” Narcissa said firmly. “She’s a slave we should be treating her as such not turning her into a pampered pet.”

“Well what do you propose we do with her, Narcissa?”

“I really don’t know but turning her into a pet just doesn’t seem right.”

Lucius smiled “He’s gone. I just felt him pass through the wards.” They nodded in agreement feeling the same thing.

Severus entered the room with his black death eaters robes billowing behind him. He look at his friends and how stressed they looked. “Where’s the girl?” He asked in concern.

Draco waved towards the bathroom. “She’s cleaning up.”

Severus stormed into the bathroom throwing open the door and startling her. “Ms. Granger, please finish up. There’s much that we need to discuss.”

She was still sitting on the toilet when Severus burst into the bathroom nearly giving her a heart attack. Hermione groaned “Ugh! Will you ever knock? I’m just finishing up.”

When she returned to the sitting room Severus was pouring tea for everyone. She caught the tail end of the conversation. “He really said that? I can’t believe that he’s not still angry with them.” Draco was saying in surprise.

“With who?” Hermione asked interrupting their conversation as she entered the room. Lucius snapped his eyes to her in annoyance. Hermione looked away timidly as she eased down on to the couch. Her private area was really hurting her but she was too embarrassed to complain about it. In the bathroom she had cleaned herself up but there was still blood. She figured she should expect some blood but wasn't sure how much was too much.

Severus ignored her. “I think he forgot that he was angry.”

Lucius scowled. “Severus, the girl cast a memory spell on him that first day. She pushed him to forget the horcrux search and the house elves aiding their escape. That’s why he’s not angry anymore. If we bring them back will he suddenly remember and hunt them down again?”

“I know it was a very impressive spell." Severus said with some pride for his student "but he realizes now that it wasn’t really one of your elves that aided in the escape. It’s safe for you to invite them back.”

“Okay, when you return to Hogwarts send an elf I’ll invite them back if they still want to come back that is.” Narcissa was still concerned but the house was really too big to care for without their aid.

“Severus, we were discussing what we should be doing with her.”

Severus smirked at him. “She’s yours Lucius do whatever you want with her. Our Lord will want to see how creative you are in her treatment. That pet idea has merit. He seems genuinely interested in seeing her treated as an animal as he feels mudbloods aren’t far from being nothing more than animals anyway.”

“Was he this fanatical during the first war?” Draco asked. “I can’t believe that you would ever have joined him father” he said shaking his head.

Severus shook his head no “He has come to us back insane. He would never have gained such a following if he was behaving this way 20 years ago.”

“But we all still carry his mark and he is truly a very powerful wizard. We had no choice but to pick up where we left off.” Lucius said sadly. “I am sorry that I got us all involved with him.”

Hermione frowned, she was starting to feel bad for the Malfoy family now that she had spent some time with them. “So this pet idea that you had, the one that you think has merit, what exactly are we talking about? I don’t really want to be treated like an animal.”

Draco chuckled. “Relax Granger, we have no intentions of making you run around on all fours barking and wagging you tail.”

“Well what intentions do you have?” She asked nervously.

Lucius pursed his lips thinking of how to proceed. “Okay, first off lets discuss how we want to speak to her. She’s a slave now. She doesn’t have a family by her own doing therefore there is no family name. No more Ms. Granger. Her name is Hermione. We can call her pet names such as Pet or maybe Puppy or something like that but we need to drop the Granger part.”

Hermione felt that sounded reasonable at least until the war was over then she could just start using her family name again. Her parents might be gone from her life but that didn’t change the fact that they were once her family. “I’m good with that. I wouldn’t mind being called Pet but Puppy doesn’t feel right.”

“Okay so Pet or Hermione.” Draco said trying the names out.

“Yes, and she should refer to us as Master or Mistress. No more Lord or Lady. If she likes she can add our first names on as in Master Lucius or Mistress Narcissa.” Narcissa added.

Lucius nodded “I agree. Also if we are reprimanding her for something and not just you know playing around it should be Slave Hermione. For instance when are in the halls and she’s doing something we told her not to do ‘Slave Hermione’ would cue her that she is in trouble and going to be punished for whatever she has done.”

Hermione scrunched her nose at that suggestion. “I don’t think you are going to need to punish me for anything.”

Draco grunted and said “you aren’t going to be able to be that good, as smart as you are you’ll find some way to screw up.”

“I don’t screw things up.” She snapped at him.

“Slave Hermione,” Narcissa spoke firmly, “You have trouble holding your tongue. You are too impulsive and don’t think before you proceed. Those are the kind of things that are going to get you punished.”

Hermione clenched her jaw but didn’t respond. She knew that Mistress Narcissa was right.

Lucius went on “We want to play with you.” He said motioning to himself and Draco. “Dress you up, feed you, things like that. What we say you do, even if it’s something crazy or humiliating.”

“Humiliating? What do you have in mind?”

Draco shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe you could wear a turtle on your head.”

Lucius laughed “I was thinking more like a frog but a turtle would be fun too. The point is that you are playing a part and the better behaved you are the better we will all be and maybe we will all survive this thing.”

Severus interjected. “That reminds me, Narcissa I want you to teach her as many healing spells as you can. If it comes to war we’ll need healers and since she won’t be allowed to do anything else she might as well do that.” Severus nodded to Draco. “And Draco, I want you to conjure or transfigure a collar for her to wear that will glow whenever she’s using her magic so that we can all see when she’s doing something. Especially since she’s so good at doing mind spells without her wand or using words.”

Draco nodded “I can do that easily.”

“Lucius, I want to see how well the spell is working let’s try a few thing out. Hermione, try casting something simple so that Lucius can feel what it feels like when you’re doing something.”

Hermione looked around trying to think of something really easy that didn’t require her wand. She held out her hand and said out loud “Lumonous.” A small orb of light appeared in her palm.

Lucius sucked in a breath and said “that was a weird feeling. It was like something just brushed against my core.”

“Try something harder.” Severus commanded.

Hermione looked about the room trying to think of something that wouldn’t cause any damage. She spied her wand in Lucius holster at his side. “Accio wand” she said holding her hand out towards him. Her wand slipped from his holster and flew into her hand. She smiled triumphantly. Lucius scowled at her.

“Okay that was good. Now Lucius try and stop her from doing magic. I think if you concentrate on suppressing her it should work.”

“Hermione, try casting a levitate spell on the chair.” She pointed her wand at the chair and lifted it about four inches. Lucius smiled when the chair dropped back to the floor and she tried to recast the spell.

Severus smiled “Okay there’s one more thing I want to try. Hermione, cast your patronous charm.” Hermione took a deep breath and cast her patronous. An otter sprung from the tip of her wand and bounded around the room. “Hermione, are you able to use your patronous to send messages to others?”

Hermione let the otter disappear but didn’t answer the question. “Answer him Slave.” Lucius barked.

She sighed. “I can’t cast the patronous spell without a wand.” she said flippantly.

Lucius narrowed his eyes at her. “I am not above turning you over a knee and spanking you for disobedience. Answer the question.”

“I’m sorry. Yes I can but I’m not sure how far it travels. I’ve never tried it outside of the room of requirement.”

“Lucius, tell her that you forbid her from casting that spell.”

“Slave, I forbid you from casting a patronous spell.” Lucius commanded.

Hermione scowled at him and said “what’s the point of that?”

“Try it again Hermione.” She held out her wand and cast the spell. At first nothing happened but then she felt a burning sensation run up her arm making her drop the wand. She cried out as her hand continued to burn even though the wand now lay of the floor. She cradled her hand to her stomach crying that it hurt. “Narcissa use your wand to cast a finite spell.” She pulled her wand from her pocket and tried the spell. Nothing happened and the pain was still increasing in her hand she looked at it and saw that it was turning white and shriveling up. She held it out for Severus to see. “Lucius give Narcissa permission to end the spell.”

“Narcissa you have my permission to end any spells performed by my Slave.”

Narcissa nodded understanding Severus’ train of thought she tried the spell again “Finite.” She said loud enough for Hermione to hear over her cries of agony.

The pain in her hand ceased immediately. She looked at it. The color was returning to its normal hue. “What the heck was that all about?” She asked once she regained most of her composure.

Severus smiled “Hermione, I want you sit down on the floor.”

“Why?” She asked him nervously.

Narcissa groaned. “Will you ever learn to not question your Masters?” Hermione plopped down and looked up at her seeking approval.

“Lucius, command her to stay there and not get up.”

“Slave, stay seated and don’t get up.” Hermione nodded.

“Now try to get up. Let’s see what happens.”

Hermione shook her head “let’s not. I don’t want to get hurt again.”

“Just do it Hermione. We need to see the extent of the spell.” Draco said trying to encourage her.

Hermione eyed them warily “What if it hurts me again and you can’t reverse it?”

“That won’t happen girl I promise.” Lucius told her.

She was able to stand up and move around. “My stomach really hurts. I don’t think I feel so well.” She said after just a few seconds.

Lucius smiled. “It will make her sick if she disobeys me? Draco you have my permission to release my slave.”

“Slave you may stand up now.” Draco commanded

Hermione instantly felt better. She looked around at the Malfoys. “I don’t think I like this spell after all.”

Severus laughed. “It won’t be terrible Hermione my friends won’t take advantage of you too much. They won’t get crazy.”

She nodded “I would appreciate that Master Severus.”

“Lucius, you must be clear and careful how you word your commands. You don’t want to hurt her by accident.” He nodded. “I’m going back to Hogwarts. I’ve already been gone too long. I’ll send an elf with your dinner and have that elf carry the message back to the manor elves.”

Hermione stood in the room looking around hesitantly. “It’s been a long day already.”

“Hermione, give me your wand.” She looked for the wand that was still on the floor and picked it up. She didn’t want to give it back to him. “Please can’t I keep it for a little while longer?”

He held out his hand motioning with his fingers. “No, you can’t, not only that, I forbid you from taking it without permission unless it’s a dire emergency.” She looked at the wand again and hugged it to her before thrusting it out and into his hand. “I forbid you from taking any wand without permission unless it’s an emergency.”

She sighed. “Yes sir.”

“Lucius, my dear, you should key us into the spell too.”

“Hermione, you will obey Narcissa, Draco and Severus as you would obey me. They are the only ones who can release you from the controlling aspects of the spell.”

“Father, what about the Dark Lord?”

“Yes, of course. You will obey him as you would obey me.”

“And I’m to call you Master at all times not just when others are present?” He nodded. “Where will I sleep?”

“I was thinking about that, you will sleep in bed with one of us. I don’t want you alone and I really don’t want to give you your own room. We all have rather large beds so there is plenty of room.”

Hermione yawned. “I’m really feeling rather tired now. Can I take a nap before dinner gets here?”

He motioned to the couch. “Go ahead and relax. We have some things that need to be done still.”

Narcissa stood. “There’s something we need to do first. Stand up and remove that robe. I want to get your measurements.”

Hermione looked at Draco and Lucius thinking about the blood. “Do they have to be here?”

Narcissa looked at them and smirked. “Your modesty is noted and denied, they will both see you naked at some point so it might as well be now.”

She untied the robe and dropped it to the floor revealing her skinny body with the traces of blood running down her thighs. Lucius frowned. “She's still bleeding, Narcissa and we really need to put some weight back on her. She’s far too skinny to be healthy.”

“Yes, I can see that." Narcissa cast a spell over her body and Hermione felt instant relief. She glanced down and could see that the blood had disappeared to. She felt mortified that they had seen that but the relief she felt in her belly washed away some of that concern. Narcissa cast a second spell and said "I’ll have to have the dress maker take that into consideration.”

Draco took her arm and lifted it away from her body revealing the scar from the day before. “Aunt Bella really did a number on her arm.” Hermione looked away she had seen it when she was bathing but didn’t want to look at it too much.

“I couldn’t heal it any better than that. It was too old by the time I got to it.” Narcissa said frowning. “Azkaban was not kind to my sister’s mind. She is as crazy as He is.”

Lucius snorted. “She was crazy before Azkaban.

After casting the measurement spell Narcissa left the room for a moment. Hermione stood there feeling exposed as Lucius and Draco sat looking at her. When Narcissa came back into the room she chastised them. “You’re both staring at her like you never saw a naked girl before. Shoo, you both have work to do. Hermione get dressed. Draco, please take this letter to the Owlery.”

Hermione put the robe back on and then laid down on the couch. She felt physically drained and was a sleep almost before her head hit the cushion.


	7. The Reese Mission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning mentions of rape, blood play, and mass murder.

It had been twelve days since Hermione was caught and brought to Malfoy manor. Things had moved pretty fast the first few days. The Malfoys health had improved, they no longer gave the appearance of being broken down and haggard. The night after the bonding ceremony was preformed Draco had completed his project and placed the magic sensing collar around her neck. Voldemort had come to see if it worked correctly and was thrilled that he had accomplished his task so well. Afterwards, He commanded that Draco join him in his bed. Voldemort had made it sound as though it was some kind of reward but Hermione knew different. She had seen what he was capable of and Lucius had shared with Voldemort the snippet of information that Harry had a weakness for his son. They all knew that Draco was doomed. Early in the morning he had sent Draco out of his rooms sick and bleeding. Draco had barely made it up the stairs to the family wing before he collapsed in the hall. The guard had run to Narcissa’s room to get her help and it was in that manner that Hermione began learning healing spells. When Hermione had seen his condition she accio’d her wand without waiting for permission and began repeating the spells that Narcissa was chatting. The collar that Draco had created glowed so brightly that they could clearly see what they were doing and the extent of his injuries. Voldemort had taken a knife and cut deep lines into his skin while he fucked him. He had forced Draco to come multiple times while he was playing with him. Draco had lost a lot of blood and had several broken bones and his wounds were already becoming infected. They spent the next day healing his injuries.

Voldemort opened his mind to Harry and reveled in the anger he felt flowing back to him as he tortured Draco. Harry had started to feel differently about Draco after the bathroom incident and when Draco denied knowing who he was even though Harry was sure he did know it was him, he had decided that he really did like him. Now Harry was nearly out of his mind with anger at seeing Draco being treated so badly. Ron and Luna were trying to console him but without Hermione’s aid he was unable to clear the memories from his mind. He was sure that Draco was going to die from his injuries and Harry felt as though his heart was breaking for someone who had always been his enemy.

Hermione had slipped into a routine with the Malfoy family. She spent most of her days in Lucius’ office studying healing spells. She had been interested to learn that Lucius’ main occupation was architecture and ward development. He held several patents and his wards were even used at locations such as Gringotts and the Ministry. Lucius was pretending that he was working on finding a way around the wards that were in place on Hogwarts and Dumbldore’s grave. Of course he had found it weeks ago but Severus had advised that they should wait till the proper moment to reveal it to him. Voldemort was losing patience with Lucius again. He had been trying to break through the wards on Dumbledore’s grave on his own ever since Bellatrix had interrogated Ollivander. He had tried several different things and nothing was working. Now Voldemort felt as though Lucius was failing him, and per Severus’ advice, Lucius was walking a thin line again. Hermione worried that it might be too thin but the Malfoy family insisted that they stay to course and follow Severus’ commands.

Her first night after the binding had been done she had slept in Lucius’ bed with him. She expected him to try and do something to her and had spent most of her night worrying about it. In the end all he did was sleep and spoon with her. The second night she had slept with Narcissa, her on one side of the bed and Narcissae on the other. She didn't sleep much and then they got called to aid Draco. After Draco’s night with Voldemort she had slept in a chair beside his bed keeping him comfortable. Once he was healed enough that he slept comfortably he had invited her to sleep in his bed. She found their sleeping habits interesting, Lucius liked to cuddle and Narcissa snored terribly and Draco was an even mix of both. He liked to cuddle and snored a lot but Hermione didn’t mind as he was a sound sleeper and didn’t move around as much as Lucius. None of them had done anything even remotely sexual which had surprised her. The first night Lucius pulled her to him and spooned behind her she making her tense and nervous. He didn’t sleep well either; he kicked and jerked like he was being hit with curses in his sleep most of the night. And even though Draco had invited her into his bed he still wasn’t well enough to try anything. When she enquired as to why and how long that would be the case she was told that they were waiting for Severus. Even though she wasn’t really interested in serving that way she found it unnerving how they always deferred to him so much. Their reasoning; Severus was doing so much for them and the wizarding world that it was the least they could do to reward his efforts.

Her meals were at first eaten with the family but they had found her appetite lacking, their concern for her weight evident. She argued with them that she couldn’t eat anymore but Lucius wouldn’t hear it and he used the spell to move her to the floor and force fed her as a punishment. At first she wanted to refuse the food from his hand but the spell had made her feel sick when she tried. After a meal or too of feeling sick she had given in to his demand without him having to use the spells controlling factors. She was surprised with herself that once she gave in, and he had found pleasure in controlling her, she had found that she liked pleasing him. She questioned whether or not it was the spell making her like pleasing the Malfoy family or if it was just something that was part of her personality. She had always sought approval from her parents and elders and did things that she knew would please them so she figured it might be her and not the spell. She decided that when this was all over she was going to explore the phenomenon further.

Tonight was the first time that Draco was well enough to go out on a mission since Hermione had come to the Manor. Hermione was kneeling at his side pressing her body against his leg trying to give him mental support. She kept her eyes downcast as the death eaters continued their celebration. Voldemort had ordered that she be brought to all the meetings when he had found out that she had a hand in healing the ‘weakling’, Draco. Draco stood visibly trembling in Voldemort’s presence. Even Hermione’s attempts to sooth him weren’t helping his anxiety. Voldemort was gloating that they had delivered a direct blow to the order. The death eaters cheered like they had won a quidditch match. Voldemort had withheld the fact that he was furious with his inner circle earlier because the attack had been leaked again. He had stormed around this very same room screaming at a small select group of his inner circle because of it. He set a man named Ludovic to weeding out who was the leak. Now that he had a larger grouping of his followers assembled he was acting as if they didn’t have any traitors in their midst. Hermione tried not to show any emotions as he talked about how they had exterminated a mudblood family, Mr. and Mrs. Reese and their three children and all their muggle neighbors even though order members had shown up to defend them. She didn't't want to think about what Draco and Lucius had to do while on this mission and she was really trying not to think about the block of people that had been senselessly murdered just because they were neighbors with a witch and wizard that weren’t born to magical people. Hermione now knew that the reason purebloods hated muggles wasn't that they weren't born magical it was that they were living in the muggle world. If they had just come over the veil and stayed they wouldn't have had such a problem with them. What upset them so, was that they were exposing muggles to their magic. Eventually muggles would realize that their world existed and want to exploit them. Hermione could see that happening and she began to agree with their agenda, maybe not how they were going about it but at least see their reasoning

Lucius was celebrating with the rest of Voldemort’s followers. However, Hermione had learned enough over the past few days that she knew he would be inconsolable later on with his guilt at being involved with the madman. In public he presented as the loyal servant of the Dark Lord but in private he loathed the man and secretly did things to slow his efforts down. She only hoped that what the Malfoy family was doing covertly would be of defense when the war was over and arrests were made.

Narcissa wasn’t present as several of the Death eaters had been injured during the battle and even though they could have used an extra hand with healing spells, Lucius was ordered to bring his slave to the revel. Severus had not presented himself as of yet. Conversely, Lucius had informed her that the gathering wouldn’t be dismissed until he showed up. Then most likely Voldemort would recount their success to Severus and then slip away to spend some private time with his favorite general. Every time Hermione thought about Severus being the favored bed mate of Voldemort she felt sick to her stomach. She didn’t ever dwell on what he would do with Voldemort. No those thoughts were halted every time she thought of Draco’s bloody body.

Being here nearly two weeks she had become accustomed to the wards of the manor. Lucius had explained that she was able to feel them through her bond with him. Hermione was still not able to do anything with them like open the floo or escape but Lucius, somehow, had the wards set so that when certain people came and went he could feel it as well as other members of his family. Now she was breathing a sigh of relief as she felt Severus slip inside of the ward. She nuzzled Draco’s leg signaling that she felt his arrival. Draco reached down and stroked her head his relief evident as he felt his arrival too.

Everyone’s attention turned to the doorway when he entered. Voldemort stepped forward and waited as Severus knelt and kissed the edge of his robes. Voldemort reached down and pulled Severus to his feet and as Lucius had said, a full recounting of today’s events including the cheering from all those in attendance had occurred, and just as predicted Severus was led from the room. Not a minute after they were gone the others quickly dispersed. She was sure that he would be getting an ear full at some point regarding their leak.

Lucius gathered Draco and Hermione and left for the family wing. They were stopped several times to discuss death eater happenings and to say how wonderful it would be once the Dark Lord had cleansed the wizarding world of all the infidels. Hermione hated when they talked like that around her but she was playing the part so well that she never made eye contact with any of them. She just kept her head down and stood submissively behind Lucius or Draco. She had an even harder time not reacting to the praise Lucius received for doing such a fine job at training the mudblood. There were a few times that she worried that maybe she was being brainwashed as she even felt that he had done a fine job of training her. Those thoughts worried her but she pushed them away. It had only been a little over a week and in that short period of time the Malfoys had gone from Voldemort wanting them dead for allowing Potter to escape, to them being favored and most of that change was because of Hermione’s presence in their lives. Hermoine’s feelings had changed also, where she once felt they were evil purebloods with a grotesque agenda she now saw them as people whose way of life was being changed due to the muggle world encroaching on them.

They finally reached the safety of Lucius’ master suite of rooms. Draco ran into the bathroom, she could hear him vomiting. Hermione stood frozen in place split on whether she should be helping Draco or comforting Lucius who had collapsed into his favorite chair and looked to be sobbing. Narcissa entered through the door connecting their rooms. She rushed past Hermione into the bathroom to help Draco. Hermione approached Lucius and knelt at his feet placing her head in his lap. He reached down and pulled her into his lap and hugged her to him. He was silently crying into her hair holding her tight. She wiggled to free her arms and then wrapped them around his neck so she could stroke his head in an attempt to sooth him. After a few minutes Narcissa and Draco emerged from the bathroom.

“Lucius, I’m going to give Draco a calming draft and get him settled into bed.”

Lucius nodded and said “I think that’s an excellent idea. Son you did very well tonight. I’m proud of how well you handled yourself.” His voice was shaky and muffed from Hermione’s hair. Draco heard him well enough and nodded but didn’t say anything. Narcissa led him from the room. Lucius loosened his hold on Hermione and took a deep breath. “You did well tonight too. I know it must have been hard for you to hear about the death of the order members.” Hermione nodded. “I’d like for you to stay with me tonight.” She nodded again not saying anything. She would do anything he asked her too if she thought it would please him, even have sex with him. Again, the thought of the spell surfaced in her mind. She pushed it away. It didn’t matter if it was the spell this is what she would do to keep them all alive.

 

 


	8. Breakfast With Voldemort

A house elf popped into the room early in the morning several days later “Master Lucius, you must wake up. Master Severus is saying that the Dark Lord wishes to have breakfast here.”

Lucius sat up immediately and looked at the elf “what time is it?” he asked in a panic.

The elf bowed “it’s just 5:30am. Breakfast with be served at 7am.”

He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Tecks.” The elf popped away. “Hermione, wake up we have to prepare for a family breakfast with the Dark Lord.”

Hermione groaned. “Why do we have to get up so early?”

Lucius laughed. “We don’t want to be late. As a matter of fact we should be early since I am the host.”

Hermione groaned again. “I feel like I’ve had no sleep. What time was it when we went to bed anyway?”

Lucius chuckled. “Just get up. And it was after 2am.”

“And now it’s 5:30? Three and a half hours sleep?” She whined.

“Slave” Lucius said with a firmer voice.

Hermione jumped from the bed. “I’m sorry.”

He nodded. “Go get cleaned up while I make sure Narcissa and Draco are up also.”

At 6:35am the four of them stood in the Master suite dressed and ready to impress. This would be the first time that Hermione was included in a family meal that was more than just the Malfoy’s and Severus and she was really nervous. Narcissa had told her that her sister Bellatrix and her husband had remained at the manor after the revel the night before. Hermione had seen her around and had been to meetings with her but she hadn’t been in a situation where there wasn’t something bigger to focus on such as a ranting Dark Lord or a room full of followers who were celebrating something. She would be expected to kneel next to Lucius as she had been doing for the past few weeks and allow him to hand feed her. As she was feeling right now she wasn’t even the slightest bit hungry with her stomach being tied into nervous knots.

Lucius looked around at his family and smiled. “Remember you are Malfoy’s don’t let them know that anything can upset you. We are a pureblood family with centuries of magical blood running through our veins” He looked at Hermione “you’ve been doing great just keep your head down as much as you can and don’t let anyone goad you into breaking your training.” She tried to give him an encouraging smile. He patted her cheek and said “we’ll make a slytherin of you yet.”

They left the room and walked with their heads held high as they made their way to the dining room. Hermione kept her eyes down casted and head high as if she were proud to be included in the procession which she was. She caught a few glimpses of the impression the family unit made as they made their way down. Once they were in the dining room Narcissa left them to check on the few house elves that were in the kitchen cooking. Draco led Hermione over to the window that overlooked the front of the grounds. The gardens were just starting to come to life as April was approaching. Lucius stood and received guests.

“Master Draco, how many people will be here this morning?” Hermione asked. She had glanced at the table and saw more place settings then she expected,

He glanced at the table. “The elves have the table set for ten people. They probably went around and got a head count once Severus informed them that they would need to serve breakfast. I’m guessing that he has probably enlisted some of the Hogwarts elves.”

She was adding people in her head and could only count eight people including her but she wouldn’t be seated at the table. “I wonder who else is going to be here.”

Draco turned her away from the table and pointed out the window as if he was showing her something “That’s Ludovic and his wife that just entered.” He pointed to the other side of the window. “And that’s the new Minister of Magic Pius Thicknesse.” He said as he pointed up at the sky.

Hermione said “Oh, I see. It will look even more beautiful in the late spring when all the flowers are in bloom.” Even though she couldn’t see who he was pointing at she figured that she needed to play along.

Draco nodded. “My mother is very proud of her gardens.”

“My sister has always had an interest in herbology.” Bellatrix said as she approached them. Hermione bowed her head to avoid making eye contact with her.

“Aunty Bella, how nice it is for you to join us for breakfast.”

She raised her hand to his cheek and stroked his face. Hermione saw his hand clench as he tried to contain himself. “My dear nephew, why are you wasting your time filling the mudblood’s head with thoughts of the garden in full bloom, surely you realize that as soon as Potter is dead she will follow.”

Draco reached up and took her hand away from his face. “She was a gift from the Dark Lord to my father. I do not think he would take a gift such as her away from him.”

Bella chuckled. “Don’t get your hopes up the only reason he’s tolerating her existence is because Sev thinks we can use her.”

Draco straightened “I’m not discussing this with you, Bellatrix.” He took Hermione’s arm and led her over to Lucius.

Lucius was busy talking to Thicknesse when Draco joined him at his side. “Minister Thicknesse, have you met my son Draco before?”

Pius held out his hand. “Yes, of course we have met.”

Draco shook the offered hand. “It’s good to see you again.”

Pius looked around Draco’s side to where Hermione was trying to not draw attention to herself. “And this must be the Gryffindor Princess, The so called brains of the ‘golden trio.” He said the last part sneering out the words.

Lucius placed his hand on the back of her neck and pulled her forward. “Yes, this is my Slave, Hermione. Hermione I’d like for you to meet Minister Thicknesse.”

Hermione curtsied “how do you do, Sir.” She said politely.

The minister chuckled. “I had heard that you were training her well.” He turned back to Hermione. “I work with your friends’ father, Arthur Weasley.” Hermione didn’t know how she was supposed to respond to that. She quickly glanced up to Lucius to see if he had any clues for her. “I’m sure he would be interested to know that you are here and happily enslaved.”

Lucius grunted. “The Dark Lord didn’t want her situation spoken about outside the manor. He didn’t want to chance brining the Order here for a botched rescue attempt. He wants to wait and use the rescue attempt for a time when we can flush more of them out.”

Thicknesse nodded in understanding. “Mums the word” he said winking at her.

At one minute past seven Voldemort entered the room with Severus just a step behind. He went straight to the dining table and took his seat not speaking a word to anyone. Everyone else followed and seated themselves also not speaking. Hermione remained standing till Lucius was settled and motioned for her to kneel by his side. Once she was kneeling Voldemort began speaking.

“Lucius, I see you’ve brought your pet mudblood.” Hermione struggle not to groan and roll her eyes when she realized that Voldemort was probably going to spend breakfast making a spectacle of her. “How have you been enjoying its company?”

Lucius was caught a little off guard not realizing that this breakfast was going to be about Hermione. He cleared his throat and said “I’ve been enjoying her company very well thank you.” He had noticed that Voldemort had used ‘it’ instead of her but he refrained from doing the same thinking that maybe it was a trap to show that she was less valuable.

Voldemort nodded. “It’s not to my personal taste but I can understand a person’s…shall we say, perversions … for taking a mudblood to bed.”

Hermione could see Draco and Narcissa tense slightly at that comment. She worried where they thought he might be going with this conversation. Lucius looked at those seated around the table. All eyes were focused on him. Ludovic and his wife had a look of disgust on their faces. Lucius smirked. “My Lord, although she has slept in our beds not one of us has touched her in a sexual way, if that’s what you were suggesting by way of perversions.”

“Oh really, I thought that was your plan as you did bind her to you sexually. I would have thought you’d be fucking her every chance you got. I hope you aren’t wasting my gift to you.”

Lucius took a sip of juice before he spoke again. “I don’t consider it wasting, my lord, she has been doing other things for my family that bring us pleasure.”

Voldemort leaned over and whispered something to Severus. Severus nodded and gave Hermione an unseen wink. Hermione was dying to know where this conversation was going. “Do you remember when I first gave the mudblood to you that I nearly offered her to Severus first?”

Lucius nodded. “I did not wish to bring that up in such a public setting, My Lord, but since we are among friends, I can tell you one of the reasons we have not used her in that manner is because we knew our good friend Severus would enjoy her more if she were untouched. Of course she’s not completely untouched but she hasn’t been touched since the binding. We have been saving her for Severus.” Narcissa and Draco nodded in agreement.

Voldemort smirked. “I see, how very considerate of you. Tonight you will send your slave to Severus’ room where she will serve him. Then you and your son can start fucking her as often as you like.” He hummed as he was thinking of something else to add. “I think I’d like to see that. Although I’d never want to soil myself in such a way it might be interesting to see the proud Malfoy men get themselves a little dirty together.” He smiled at Severus. “There my boy you’ve got your reward.” Severus actually blushed. Hermione couldn’t believe her eyes. Voldemort smiled indulgently at him. The other guests shifted uncomfortably around the table as Voldemort shared an intimate moment with Snape. Without taking his eyes off of Severus he said “Lady Narcissa Please have the house elves serve our meals.”

Narcissa looked deep in thought for a moment and an elf appeared. “Mistress is calling Tecks?”

“Yes Tecks, you may begin serving our meals.”

Tecks bowed again and left the room with a pop. Another pop and plates appeared in front of the guest.

It was a relief to have something else to focus on other than Voldemort being infatuated with Snape this morning. Lucius held down a fork full of food for her to eat. Her stomach did a little somersault at the thought of eating she was so nervous. She closed her eyes trying to get the butterflies to go away. Taking deep breaths with her eyes closed she hadn’t realized that she had become the focus of the table once again. When she heard Lucius snap at her. “Slave open your eyes and eat.” Her eyes flew open and met his. He was clearly angry with her and at first she didn’t understand why but when he glanced to the other guests she could clearly see that she had all the attention. She opened her mouth to accept the offered food even though she was sure to be bringing it right back up again.

“Are you having a problem with the slave this morning?” Voldemort asked sounding genuinely curious.

Draco looked at his father for permission to answer “My Lord, the slave is just a little nervous. This is the first time she has been invited to eat with anyone other than just us.”

Thicknesse smiled. “I’m sure the transition has been hard for her. Being in Gryffindor she was probably very self-sufficient and now to have to rely on others for everything. The poor creature probably doesn’t even know how good or bad she has it.”

Bellatrix laughed. “Oh trust me she has it really good. My brother in law and nephew have been spoiling her immensely. They have been dressing her up and playing games with her. It’s just weird that they would want something so disgusting.”

Hermione was trying to ignore the conversation around the table and focus on Lucius feeding her. She was trying to keep what he was putting in her stomach down when she was drawn back into the conversation by Voldemort himself. “Slave, are you looking forward to serving Severus tonight?” Hermione glanced at Lucius to see what she was supposed to do or say. “I asked you a question you do not need to seek Lucius’ approval to answer.” That had clearly angered him and now she really wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.

“Lord Voldemort, forgive me” She groveled. “I …I …” She trailed off looking for the right words “I I look forward to serving my Master in whatever manner he may wish.” Those were the right words and they were even true she realized.

Voldemort smiled. “That was a good answer you sneaky little mudblood. You don’t really think that we were fooled by that lie?”

Hermione shook her head. “But it wasn’t a lie. I do enjoy serving Master Lucius. I don’t know what to expect from Master Severus. I knew that was why my Masters’ and Mistress hadn’t touched me, they wanted me to be in Master Severus’ bed first but they also have not told me what to expect.” She glanced to Severus who seemed too happy for such a crazy breakfast party.

Voldemort laughed. “They probably didn’t want to scare you. It’s better to leave it up to your imagination. Narcissa I’m sure you’ll be ready with your healing spells first thing in the morning or Severus maybe you’ll spend time healing so that you can go back for round two or three or four.” He broke out into an awful laugh like he had just told the funniest of jokes. The other death eaters around the table joined in his laughter. Severus smiled slyly and gave her another little wink. Draco stroked her head startling her. She looked up into his eyes and saw that he looked worried. She realized then that Severus probably shared Voldemort’s tastes and that she was probably going to suffer through the same or similar thing that Draco went through. She began trembling and hyperventilating the urge to flee becoming overwhelming.

Lucius leaned over and whispered in her ear. “You belong to the Malfoy family you do not show fear.” His stern voice and commanding presence soothed her slightly. She inhaled and then exhaled slowly and pulled herself back together. Lucius crooned to her and said “that’s a good girl. Now eat.” He held the fork down to her again, now that her butterflies were completely forgotten and she found that she was actually starving.

Voldemort watched her transformation back to the stoic girl that was present when they first began their meal. He was slightly annoyed that Malfoy had said something to calm the girl down ending his fun of watching her suffer. “Malfoy what did you just say to her to end her fear?”

Lucius looked up surprised “I merely reminded her that she belonged to the Malfoy family.”

“What do you mean by that?” He snapped angrily.

Severus chimed in “My Lord I’m sure what Lucius is suggesting is that she was embarrassing him by being afraid of doing her duty and serving him.”

“Is that what you were thinking Lucius?” Voldemort asked with clear doubt in his voice.

“My Lord, I’ve been training her to perform without question. It is not her place to fear what will happen to her. It’s only her place to do it as I’ve commanded. For her to have gotten so upset about serving Severus tonight meant that she forgot that she belongs to me and I say what she is to do or not do and I said ‘Do not show fear’. Well more to the point that she belongs to the Malfoy family now and there’s a standard behavior that we all strive for and part of that behavior is to not show emotion. Her behavior was not congruent with that line of thinking.”

Bellatrix cackled. “So what you are saying is that she disobeyed you?” Lucius shrugged. “See what did I tell you, he’s spoiling her. She probably won’t even get punished for hesitating on answering Our Lord.”

Narcissa cried. “Bella, why do you even care? Stop this.”

Voldemort held up his hand to silence the table “No, Narcissa I think she is right. Your husband is spoiling my gift to him.” He looked at Lucius. “Will she be punished for her behavior today.”

Lucius pursed his lips in thought before he answered “I have not found a need to use physical punishment for her as of yet. She knows that punishment is always an option and has strived to avoid it at all costs.” He paused and looked at his family “Draco, Narcissa, Severus, the three of you have been the only ones other than me to handle her, have any of you found a need to punish her?”

Draco and Severus both shook their heads no but Narcissa frowned “The first day we owned her I had to. She was being disrespectful in the way she was talking about my husband and I placed a lung shrinking spell on her. She has not disobeyed me since.”

Hermione placed her hand on her chest remembering the terrifying feeling and now knowing what Narcissa did to give her that feeling. It didn’t make her feel any better that Narcissa probably knew spells that could remove internal organs. Lucius smiled at her. “I wondered what you did to make her so obedient to you that night.” He looked at Voldemort. “It was the first night that she was here. Right after her friends abandoned her with us. Draco and I were in the library looking for the binding spell. Narcissa brought her with us so that we could keep an eye on her. Hermione was cowering at this point still but it was clear that she had gained a healthy fear of us.”

Voldemort tilted his head “I don’t think what she has now is fear of you. I think she trusts that you are weak and will not beat her.”

“There has been no need to beat her as she knows that if she does do something she will be punished. She just hasn’t done anything to warrant a severe punishment.” Lucius retorted. “I feel if I were handing out beatings to her daily she would not have progressed as well as she has. I’d like you all to remember that she is a Gryffindor. They tend to be recklessly courageous. I imagine that she would have just taken the beatings and then goaded me into doing more to the point where eventually it would have killed her.”

Severus feeling that the conversation wasn’t moving in the right direction added “My Lord, the spell that you chose to bind her to him although, it doesn’t compel her to do anything, if she disobeys a direct order the spell punishes her.”

“How does it punish her.” he asked his curiosity rising.

Hermione looked around at the table all eyes were on her. She knew that they were looking for a demonstration. She had to think of something shocking that would not only impress those present but would be a blatant breaking of the rules. She took a deep breath. The collar around her neck started glowing, then said loud enough for the whole table to hear as she thrust her hand in the air towards Lucius she said “Accio Master Lucius wand.” She had expected her wand that was on the other side of his body to fly up to her hand but instead the wand that was in Voldemort’s possession flew across the table into her hand. The burning sensation erupted from her core as she held the wand out for Lucius and the others to see. The burning turned into pain and she was forced to drop the wand down onto the table.

Lucius grabbed her arm to prevent her from withdrawing it. Voldemort stood fascinated as he watched her hand turn white and begin to shrivel up. Severus smiled “See as I said the spell works really well. Lucius what order did you give her regarding what she just did?”

“Well, the direction that was given was that I forbid her from taking any wand without permission. I think the spell is able to sense circumstances as she has retrieved her wand from me several times without consequence.”

Hermione was trembling as he was talking to the other guest. Malfoy had her arm gripped in his hand hard enough that she was sure he’d leave bruises and as her arm deteriorated his fingers wrapped around her bones. She whimpered “Please Master.”

Lucius glanced down at her arm “As soon as the spell is released the punishment ends and the arm returns to normal.” He looked around the table seeing that he had everyone’s attention. “I release you slave.” The pain died away as her arm returned back to its normal condition. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you for the demonstration slave.” He picked up his wand from the table and handed it back to her. “You will take this back to Our Lord and present it to him.”

She took the wand knowing that it was surely going to be turned on her as soon as it was in Voldemort possession again. Standing she held her head high as she tried to walk proudly down to Voldemort’s place at the head of the table. She knelt down next to him and held the wand up to him using both hands with her palms open. Voldemort took the wand and grabbed her arm inspecting it. When he was satisfied with his inspection he took his seat but didn’t release her arm. “Tell me Lucius, could you feel the spell she was casting?” Lucius nodded. “hmm before or after she cast the spell?”

“My Lord, in this case I could feel her pulling on her core before she cast the spell. She had some time to think about what she was going to do.” He chuckled and said “I don’t think she meant to take your wand though, she has probably begun to think of her wand as mine now as I’ve been using it since she arrived here.” Hermione nodded.

“Can you feel when a spell is used on her?”

Lucius frowned. "As I’ve said we haven’t had cause to do so.”

Hermione tried not to tense. She knew that in a moment she was going to be in more pain than imaginable. She looked at Severus who had his straight I have no emotions face in place. She thought to herself this is going to be bad if Severus has separated himself from what was going on.

Voldemort released her arm. Hermione continued to kneel where she was and placed both hands down on her lap. “Lucius, I would like for you to tell me how this makes you feel. Crucio.” He had said it so casually that at first Hermione didn’t think she heard him right but then every nerve ending seemed to exploded into a fired pain. She screamed first but the scream was cut off by the convulsions that wracked her body.

Lucius tried to keep a straight face as he watched Hermione being tortured by Voldemort. After a few seconds of her being tortured he sighed and said “I can feel that her core is being manipulated but not any of her pain.”

Voldemort nodded ending the curse then said to her casually “get up slave.” She was panting heavy trying to catch her breath everything still hurt and she couldn’t stop herself from convulsing. Once she had returned to the kneeling position Voldemort then said “Imperio.” Hermione felt light headed; she stood and reached over the table and grabbed Severus’ dagger from its sheath on his side.

“My Lord?” Severus questioned him. Voldemort waved away his concern. He watched as Hermione struggled with herself as she lifted the knife to her arm.

“Lucius, can you feel what your slave is going to do?”

Lucius shook his head no. “Again I can feel that something is pulling on her but not what she’s going through. It’s a different sensation then when she is doing magic on her own.”

Hermione pressed the knife to her arm making a deep cut and then another and another.

Bellatrix began laughing again. “I should have used that trick to mark her the other day.”

Voldemort smiled and waved his hand at Hermione. She stopped cutting herself and threw the knife at Bellatrix embedding it into her arm. Bellatrix howl in pain and drew her wand and pointed it at Hermione. Voldemort waved at Bellatrix who went flying backwards and landed against the wall. Everyone at the table sat quietly wondering what they should do. Bellatrix stood up still holding her wand out. Hermione stood holding her bleeding arm to her body trying to remain calm. Voldemort smiled at her “You did very well mudblood. Come and sit with me as we finish our meal.” Bella huffed indignantly but took her seat as well. He looked around the table and then said motioning to the guest “Please eat, the house elves have made this fine meal for us. Please enjoy it.”

She held her arm pressed to her stomach trying to stop the bleeding. The cuts that he had forced her to make were rather deep and she feared she might bleed to death. Voldemort was offering her food from his own plate as they ate seemingly oblivious to her plight. She was a little surprised that Voldemort didn’t say anything about the fact that she had thrown the knife at Bellatrix of her own free will. She glanced down the table to Narcissa who was watching her wearily. Hermione obediently took the offered food terrified that Voldemort would have another trick up his sleeve. As plates were being cleared by house elves Voldemort spoke again. He was holding a glass of juice down for Hermione to take a sip from it. “I wonder when we catch Potter and his friend if they would be so easy to enslave. I can see the appeal to having one so dependent on you Lucius. It’s quite pleasant to sit here and quietly feed her even though I can tell that she has lost her appetite.”

“Her kneeling at my side to be fed started out as a punishment but you are right it is very nice having her there like that. We have continued with it for that very reason.”

Voldemort nodded then he said wistfully “oh what a fun treat that would be to have Harry Potter kneeling before me begging for scraps of food from my plate.” He patted her head and said “You can go now girl. You’re losing a lot of blood and I wouldn’t want you to be in such a way that My Severus couldn’t fully enjoy you this evening.”

Hermione wanted to put her trainers on and run from the room but she managed to maintain her composure reminded herself that she belonged to the Malfoys and that that wasn’t how she should act. Keeping up with the theme she said “Thank you My Lord.” Then rose to her feet and walked calmly from the room.

Voldemort watched her leave the room. “Lucius, I am very impressed with how well she is coming along. I had thought it would be more like you said that she would eventually be beaten to death but your gentleness has proven the better training method. If she keeps this behavior up I’ll let you keep her once we have won.” He stood up. “Thank you all for joining me for breakfast this morning it has truly been an entertaining meal.”

Once Voldemort had left the room Severus stood “Narcissa, you should see to your slave. Those wounds will need to be healed. My dagger is charmed to scar, it can’t be helped but do tender to her. Do you have blood replenisher in stock?”

“I only have what was meant for the injured death eaters. I used the family’s personal stock last week on Draco.”

He nodded “I’ll send you some from my personal stock. Draco I’d recommend you get to brewing to replenish your families supplies.”

 

 

Hermione walked out of the dining room and paused outside the door. She was light headed probably from blood lose but she had never been allowed to travel the halls by herself and now she wasn’t sure if she should wait for one of the family or go by herself. She glanced at the death eaters that were on guard near entrance. She recognized both of them, one was Mr. Simmons, and the other was the man who smelled awful. Bracing herself she said “Mr. Simmons, I need to be escorted to my Master’s suite.”

Simmons acted like he had just seen her and said “I don’t take orders from a slave.”

Hermione nodded. “I know that, sir.”

Voldemort came striding out of the room and paused “what is going on here?” The men both bow to him. “I asked you a question.”

Hermione piped up “My Lord, I have been told that I may not walk the manor unescorted I was just asking your followers here if they would escort me to my Master’s rooms. Mr. Simmons informed me that he doesn’t take orders from a slave.”

“Oh, is that so.” Voldemort said sounding surprised. “What are your names?”

“I’m Bedford Simmons and this is Balinchk from the Greyback pack.”

Voldemort sniffed at them both in distaste. “Well from now on you do take orders from a slave. You will be her personal body guards. If she needs to go anywhere you are to take her and obey her and keep her safe even if it’s from herself. From now on if she gets hurt while wandering the halls or anywhere else it will be your fault. Do I make myself clear?” Not waiting for an answer he made his way to the entry point and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Hermione stood wide eyed in amazement when Voldemort gave her command over two of his followers. The three of them stood looking at the place had had just disappeared from. “Hermione, you were dismissed why are you lingering in the hall?” Severus asked from behind them.

Hermione turned around and looked at him shocked “Lord Voldemort just gave me my own personal body guards.”

“Simmons shook his head. I don’t think that’s right, where does he think we would escort her too. Other than following her from the library to the dining room where else could she go? She doesn’t need personal body guards.”

Balinchk growled “Greyback will probably shred me for having been demoted in such away.”

“You don’t understand this isn’t a demotion. The Slave was just tested by Voldemort and he found her pleasing. She has been given a level of trust especially to suggest that now she can wander the halls without a family member. She has been rewarded. You may have only been picked for this assignment because you were standing guard already but this is the type of assignment that will get you noticed for the good or the bad.” Severus put his hand on Balinchk’s shoulder. “I told you that I would help your careers trust me in this.” He said to both of the men.

Hermione leaned against the wall starting to feel too weak to stand “I don’t feel as though I passed that test, Master Severus.”

He laughed. “Hermione, has there ever been a test that you didn’t pass?” He motioned to the men “It definitely won’t look good for your careers if you let your first assignment bleed to death in the hall.”

Narcissa came out of the room. “Hermione, why are you still out here?” Hermione wanted to cry tears of joy. Narcissa was here finally.

“Lady Malfoy, our apologies we have just been assigned to the slave as her body guards. We will assist her to your husband’s rooms now.” Balinchk took Hermione’s uninjured arm and put it over his shoulder helping her to the stairs.

“Balinchk, it might be easier if you carried her or maybe even levitated her up. She’s already lost too much blood. I don’t want her exerting herself further.” Severus said to the men. He watched as Balinchk scooped her up and carried her with ease up the first flight of stairs.”

Narcissa stood staring after them. “What is happening, Severus?”

He smiled. “Your slave was given a test this morning so that she could be let off leash.”

“You are telling me this whole breakfast thing was planned so that Hermione could be tested?” Narcissa asked shocked.

Severus nodded “I had wanted to talk to you more about it but now I’ve got to head back to Hogwarts for blood replenisher. I’ll fill you in further later on this evening when I collect my reward.” He said winking at her.

Lucius and Draco joined her in time to see Severus go. Narcissa took Lucius hand “I’m not sure if we’ve been blessed or cursed.”

Lucius looked around warily “What has happened now?”

 

After the crazy breakfast and the strange test that Voldemort had administered, Hermione was given more trust. Lucius and Draco were ordered to attend the revels that Voldemort hosted outside of the manor and forced to bring Hermione along. Most of the time the revelries were just pep rallies where everyone would chant and cheer about how great it was to be wizards and witches or how great Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and wonderful wizard who ever lived, was. Hermione would quietly kneel by Lucius or Draco’s side. Twice she was called out by Voldemort and made to bow before him while he talked about how all the mudbloods and muggles would someday do the same. How each and every one of them would own slaves just as obedient as she had become. Once she was forced to watch as a muggleborn witch was tortured for not kneeling as a proper slave. Hermione had tried to look away when the women looked at her in disgust but Voldemort had threatened to punish her if she didn’t watch. Once he was satisfied with the women’s torture he gave her to one of the Wizenagmot members. He offered to bind her to him if he could get her to show signs of acceptance of her position as Hermione did the first day she was with the Malfoys. Later as they were leaving the revel Hermione saw the women’s lifeless body lying in the bushes.

She had made several trips out of the manor to places like Diagon alley and Hogsmeade with her escorts following close behind. Severus had arranged the trips and leaked that Hermione was alive. However, even though she had seen people that she suspected were order members none of them had approached her. They had been simple in and out trips to retrieve potion supplies and a box of sweets from the candy shop. The longest trip she had made was to a little town called Dowery. A man named Tolend had to disapparate her and the two escorts to a place well over a mile from the town and its shops and left them there. They had to walk the rest of the way and the muggle town was really busy for a Sunday morning. When they reached a part of the town that had become more residential Balinchk had said that he would wait for them there. The three of them were dressed in their normal clothing which made them standout terribly, people were staring and whispering as they passed by. Simmons had accompanied Hermione to the edge of the shopping district and said that she could go the rest of the way as he wasn’t comfortable around all these mudbloods.

She walked to a jeweler shop that boasted items made to order and once inside the man had made a show of ushering the other patrons out the door. He closed and locked the shop before he even greeted her. The strange man was nervous as he tried to make small talk with Hermione. Hermione was trying to be polite but she really didn’t feel comfortable with how the man was acting. After a few curt responses he finally got down to business and retrieved the package that Severus had sent her to get. As he handed Hermione the package he asked her if she was really Harry Potter’s friend. Hermione had faltered for a second before regaining her composure. She had reassured the man that the package would be delivered to the correct person and completely avoided answering his question about her relationship with Harry.

Hermione stood in the street for a few minutes and briefly considered that she could easily disapparate from their and not return to Malfoy Manor. Surely Severus had set this up to give her the opportunity to escape. But then she thought about the Malfoy’s and how they would surely be punished if she did desert them. No she really liked them and didn’t want to see anything happen to them. So she walked her same route back and collected the escorts. Once they had returned to the manor she was unexpectedly ushered into the ballroom where Voldemort sat waiting for her. At first he was angry that the mission had taken so long but once they had explained the crowds and the long walk he calmed. She presented the package to him. He didn’t even look at it as he handed it off to one of his followers and swept out of the room. Hermione had been perplexed about the whole thing but everyone seemed pleased that she had completed her task. She now knew that Voldemort had doubted that she would return and had expected her to run when the jeweler had asked about Harry. Severus later told her that Voldemort now felt that she was clearly enslaved to Lucius and could be trusted with more sensitive tasks.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry retrieves the cup from Gringotts and Severus reveals the final plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***** warning this chapter had a non/con rough sex scene which may be upsetting to those that are sensitive to that sort of thing. But as I've learned in life don't knock it until you try it. Rough sex can be a ton of fun. and of course this being alt. universe my Hermione likes it.

Lucius sat at his desk in his room researching wand mechanics. The time they had spent with Ollivander in their dungeon’s had taught him that he didn’t know nearly as much as he would like to know about how wands work. He had spent several hours discussing wands with Ollivander over tea but since he was being held prisoner Ollivander wasn’t very informative. Then Bellatrix had stepped in and decided that Lucius was taking too long and that torture would be faster. His current focus was on the Elder wand and how it could be mastered, though his research wasn’t making him terribly happy. Right now it seemed to him that either Severus or Draco could be the bearer of the wand and he couldn’t find anything that narrowed it down for him. Now that he had found the spell to open Dumbledore’s grave, the wand was within reach but he was pretty certain that even if Voldemort was holding it in his hand it still wouldn’t work right for him just like every other wand that he used.

His dark mark flared to life calling him to Voldemort. He hadn’t been called out for a mission since the trio escaped the Lovegood home, which had suited him just fine, but now his arm was burning him and he needed to go. He jumped up and ran into his room. Draco came storming into his room “Father,” He called from the sitting room waking Hermione who was still recovering from another night with Severus.

“Draco, what’s wrong?” Hermione could hear the distress in his voice.

Lucius called from his walkin “I’m in here changing. I’ve been summonsed.”

Draco called from the door way “I’ve been called too.”

Lucius looked out at him. “Well, don’t stand there boy, change.”

Draco looked at him horrified “Are we going?”

“Draco there is no time for this; we are still marked if we don’t go it’ll be our end. Now go!” Draco was nodding his head as he raced back to his room to change.

“Master, where are you going?” Hermione asked.

Lucius shook his head “the mark has a tracing spell on it when He calls us it’s to him. All we have to do is touch the mark and it will take us too him.”

“But why? You said he hadn’t called on you since you failed at the Lovegood home.”

“Yes, but now you are here and he has and I’ve got to go.” He was out the door just in time to meet Draco coming to his door.

Hermione followed them to the end of the hall and watched as they both headed down the stairs their death eater robes billowing behind them. She glanced back over her shoulder wondering if she should follow them or stay in her Master’s room. Her two body guards stood a few feet away from her. “Do either of you know where they are going?” they both shook their heads no “Why weren’t you called?”

Simmons answered, “I imagine we weren’t called either because Severus isn’t involved or it’s just for the inner circle.”

Hermione went back to the room and began pacing. Her body still ached from being with Severus the night before. It had turned out that Severus liked rough sex but he wasn’t into blood play like Voldemort was. The first night with him was a little scary at the onset. Lucius and Narcissa flat out refused to tell her what she should expect to the point where Lucius threatened to punish her if she asked again. Draco had avoided the subject entirely by hiding out in the potions lab restocking their supplies. Shortly after dinner that night Severus had come and explained to them that she would now be allowed to wander freely with the escorts. That he even planned on having her to make trips into some of the wizarding villages so that order members could see that she was alive and well. He said that they would be warned that it was a trap however he was leaving it up to them whether or not they tried to rescue her.

After discussing this with the Malfoy’s he held out his hand to her and led her to his room. Hermione was trembling with fear as he closed and locked the door. He smirked at her. “Frightened are you?”

Hermione nodded. “I was starting to think that maybe I wouldn’t have to serve in a sexual manner.”

Severus’ smile was bone chilling. She had never seen that look in his eyes before and it was unnerving. “You’re smart enough to know the value of your body, Hermione.” He said to her as he stalked closer to her. She backed up until she was pressed against the wall with nowhere to go. “Now where did we leave off last year?” He pressed his body to her crushing her against the wall. “Ah yes, I remember, the kiss. That was some kiss for someone as inexperienced as you. You were what, just sixteen?” She nodded. He smiled at her and said “Yes that was some kiss.” He pressed his lips to hers and began kissing her roughly. The kiss they had shared at Grimmauld place had been gentle and firm. She had been slightly surprised to feel his tongue caressing her lips but at the time Hermione didn’t mind and even snaked her tongue out to taste him. Of course Harry had picked that time to interrupt them. At first she was embarrassed but then she had become defensive when Harry had kept on her about what she thought she was doing. Finally he had convinced her that he was right and that she should never have allowed him that opportunity. She had a crush on the mysterious potions teacher and the fact that he would even take time to look her way had been flattering to her young mind but Harry had convinced her that it wasn’t a good thing that he had been so forward with a student. It was then that she had tried to obliviate the memory from Severus’ mind.

Now his kiss was severe and forceful. He pushed his tongue against her lips demanding entrance which she was only too happy to give. He teased her tongue and explored her mouth until she was breathless. When he broke the kiss he roughly pulled her through his quarters and pushed her down on to the bed. Suddenly she remembered the night Lucius had claimed her in front of a room full of Voldemort supporters and she had begged him for help. His way of helping her was to hold her down while Lucius fucked her. Now she feared that he was truly going to hurt her. She began struggling with him as he was pulling her robes from her body. Severus growled at her and said that she could fight all she liked but that she would be his. She tried kicking at his head only for him to grab her ankle and pull her down the bed forcing her legs apart with his body. She cried out that he was hurting her and he laughed and said that he didn’t care. Then he was back to kissing her and roughly running his hands over her body. The robes were pulled away exposing her naked body to him; he moaned at the sight and began pulling at his own robes to free himself. Hermione tried to scratch at his face but he gathered her hands and held them above her head. She tried wiggling out of his grip but now that he had his robes opened and he had freed himself she could feel the heat of his naked body against her. Every time she moved his body brushed against hers and to her amazement it felt good. Severus moaned as he savored the feeling with her. Hermione looked into his eyes alarmed as he leaned in to claim another kiss. He kissed her with such passion that she began melting under him and he took that as his cue to thrust his hips forward. The feeling of being filled by him was exhilarating. She arched her back up off the bed as he thrust into her again deepening the penetration. Soon he had set a rhythm of alternating between fucking into her hard and kissing and biting her face and neck. Hermione was delirious with her arousal when he began pounding into her hard enough to bruise. He demanded that she come for him and to her surprise she did. She had never felt anything like it before, that wonderful tingling sensation that spread throughout her body elevating every nerve ending to a heightened sensation as he continued his thrusting into her. She cried out for more as he continue his assault and orgasmed again with him falling right behind her. He lay on top of her for several minutes catching his breath still buried deep in her vagina. Then slowly he began kissing her again this time starting out gently and then increasing the intensity. His hand wandered over her breast roughly pinching and twisting her nipples. Her lips were aching and her neck and shoulders felt terribly bruised but the way he was nibbling on her and tugging on her nipples gave her butterflies in her belly. His cock had never gone completely soft and as his kisses turned more passionate he began fucking her again. Hermione began crying and begging him to stop. He ignored her and continued his ‘love making’. After a few minutes the pain he was causing her began to ebb and to her horror it actually started to feel good. Her tears continued even as another orgasm ripped through her body. Severus smiled at her and said “hmm I thought you might like this.” She nodded her head and thrust her hips up to meet his. He groaned and release into her again.

Hermione had found that she enjoyed the nights she spent with him but it was exhausting to be treated so roughly and the following day was always a day for resting. Lucius on the other hand had taken her to the other side of the spectrum after Severus had had his night with her. Several days later, she had fallen asleep in Lucius arms after they had returned from the first outside revel that they had been required to attend. At some point during the night he rolled her over and began kissing her. At first she thought that maybe he was still asleep until he began cooing to her about how much he was going to enjoy fucking her. He took his time and slowly entered her body. His pace was slow and steady building their combined orgasm for over an hour. His strokes on her body were soft and gentle and he encouraged her to caress him back. She had managed to orgasm several times during his climb but when he was finally ready he commanded her to climax with him. It was an intense feeling that she savored for several minutes. Lucius pulled her to his body again and went back to sleep. After that first time it became an almost nightly ritual for them and a few times he would basically fuck her to sleep, the only diversion being when she was called to Severus or Draco’s bed. Draco was fun to sleep with. He was adventurous and liked to change positions often even tying her in certain positions so that he could fuck her at his leisure. He liked to tickle her mercilessly and had even put her over his knee once to spank her for a perceived infraction. A few times Narcissa had joined her in Lucius bed but she never had any interest in doing anything with Hermione. She enjoyed watching Lucius find his pleasure with their slave but had no interest in touching or being touched by Hermione. At first Hermione felt really weird about it but Narcissa made it clear that she had wanted Hermione in his bed with her and that she really enjoyed watching them together.

A few hours later she felt the wards shift as Voldemort, Lucius, Draco, and several others who she didn’t recognize slipped back into the manor. She ran to the top of the steps and listened to the madman yelling. She could hear him saying “bring her into the ball room.” Hermione’s heart raced. Did he mean her why would he want to see her? Then she heard a women’s voice screeching that it wasn‘t her. She was begging and pleading for him to believe her but it didn’t seem like it was helping her situation any.

Her body guards stepped up next her. “You should probably take refuge in your Master’s rooms.”

Hermione nodded and turned to go back to his room when one of Severus’ men came bounding up the steps. She stopped and looked at him waiting to hear what he had to say. “There was a break in at Gringotts. Voldemort is torturing Bellatrix Lestrange.” Hermione gasped. The guard motioned to her. Voldemort wants the Malfoy family present and apparently that now includes her.

Hermione stood up straighter. It wouldn’t due for her to give a poor impression now that she was being considered family. “Well, gentlemen I guess I won’t be hiding out in my Master’s room.” She brushed past them and headed down the steps taking her time to mentally prepare herself for Voldemort’s tantrum.

She entered the ballroom and took a second to look around at the situation. Voldemort sat on his weird throne with Bellatrix’s body slumped on the floor not far from where he was sitting. She was bloody and her clothing had been torn from her body to the point where she looked more naked then clothed. Lucius and Draco stood off to the side looking completely detached from what was happening in front of their eyes. Hermione faltered for a moment trying to decide did she approach Voldemort or her Master. She was relieved when she heard Voldemort speak “Lucius, bring your slave forward.”

Lucius motioned for Hermione to approach him. She curtsied to him then as directed knelt before Voldemort. “Lord Voldemort.” She said greeting him. She kept her head down on the floor waiting for him to acknowledge her. It felt like a terribly long period of time before he told her to sit up.

“Tell me mudblood how did Harry Potter find out what vault the cup was in. You told me before that he didn’t know and therefore wasn’t going after it. I thought it would be safe there.”

“My Lord, I couldn’t say for sure how he knew which vault it was in. As you know I have been here serving Master Lucius.” Voldemort cursed and pointed his wand at Lucius. Hermione heard him grunt and fall down behind her. Hermione took a calming breath “My Lord, I cannot tell you and torturing one of your most loyal servants won’t change that.” She heard mumbling from behind her. His followers were making comments about how she had talked to him.

Voldemort broke the spell from Lucius and started sending curses around the room. When he had finished that part of his tantrum He dropped back down onto his throne. He sat panting and looking furious as his followers regained their composures. She could here Lucius breathing as he stood behind her again.

Hermione cleared her throat “if it would please you I could speculate on how he might have managed to figure it out but it would only be speculation.”

“Yes, Slave.” He sneered out angrily “let’s try a lesson in speculation.”

Hermione cringed thinking that if she guessed something that was not to his liking he would probably punish her. “Well, I’m assuming that Bellatrix had something to do with its theft.” She glanced towards the woman lying not a few feet from where Hermione knelt. Voldemort grunted pointing his wand at the woman again. A crackling noise could be hard and Bellatrix started whimpering anew. Hermione gulped. “Well I supposed that she wouldn’t intentionally help Harry as she’s loyal to you, so I’m guessing that it was in her vault. So someone who knew the contents of the LeStrange vault must have said something to someone that said something to Harry. But I don’t understand is, how did Harry get into the vault.” Hermione sat in thought for a few minutes and then said “I don’t have a vault at Gringotts. I’ve been to Harry’s vault with him but I didn’t pay any attention to what was going on. How do the goblins determine who gets into a vault and who doesn’t?”

“Hermione, in order to gain entrance to a vault you need your wand and a visual identification. The Goblins remember faces so when you come in with your wand they match it to your face. Some vaults are more guarded than others. For instance, that particular vault, you needed an escort to get to it. And then it was guarded by a dragon. Potter and Weasley went through a lot of the wards that were in place to pull this heist off.” Lucius informed her.

Hermione smiled a little feeling proud of her friends for not giving up. Voldemort saw her face and his anger flared once more. This time Draco was cursed. Hermione rushed to think about how he could have pulled this off. “Bellatrix. He must have taken her wand when he was here a few weeks ago. But that doesn’t explain that facial thing.” Draco was withering on his side convulsing and crying as Voldemort held the curse. “Poly juice potion” she screamed. “They must have been brewing poly juice potion.”

Voldemort lifted Draco’s curse. “Poly juice potion?” He asked skeptically.

“Yes, it makes sense it takes about a month to brew properly and it’s been that long. We used it when we took the locket from the ministry.” She sighed in relief when Draco began to sit up making a slow recovery. She thought on it some more. “Who else was with him?”

“Weasley and the Lovegood girl.” Lucius answered.

Hermione smirked. “The dragon. Luna has a talent with magical creatures like dragons, unicorns, hypogriyphs, Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and such things. But how did they know where the vault was and whether or not there would be dragons. They must have met someone.”

Lucius frowned. “Griphook escaped with them I bet he told him where the vault was. He probably tried to discourage him from trying for it goblin pride and all but Potter isn’t easily turned away.”

“That doesn’t explain how Harry knew to ask about the vault in the first place.” Hermione said frowning.

“Father don’t you remember Bellatrix was interrogating Griphook about how did Potter get the sword of Gryffindor out of her vault. Potter probably put two and two together figured that the cup was in Bella’s vault if she had other valuables in there.” Draco said returning to his standing position.

“I bet that crazy plan was Ron’s idea. However did they escape?”

“They freed the dragon and rode him out of the building.” Lucius said groaning. “That boy has more balls then brains sometimes.” He said shaking his head “Gringotts is a mess not to mention that half of the Goblins are dead. I think the bank will be closed for weeks.”

“Lucius, I think the bank is the least of our worries.” Voldemort said calmer then he should be.

“So what do we do now?” Hermione asked worried about Voldemort’s sudden calmness.

Voldemort stood and said “we do nothing. I’ve got something else to take care of.”

And with that he was gone. Narcissa rushed to Bella’s side and began casting her healing spells over her body. The others followed him out of the ballroom leaving the Malfoy family to themselves. “Hermione, come help me.” Narcissa called her to her side. Hermione looked up at Lucius looking for her wand which he pulled it out and handed to her.

Bella was groaning “I don’t want the mudblood’s help Cissy.”

Hermione knelt next to Narcissa and waited. “Well I do and if you want my help you’re going to get hers.”

Bella tried to slapped at Narcissa’s hands and said “fine then I don’t want your help either.”

“But Bella you need a healer.”

Bella groaned. “Just leave me be Narcissa. I don’t want your dirty mudblood near me.”

Narcissa stood “fine then, die see if I care.”

Hermione remained kneeling by Bella’s side watching Narcissa stomp out of the room. “That really wasn’t very smart of you Bellatrix. Your sister was only trying to help. You need more help than Narcissa can give you alone.”

She rolled onto her side exposing a gash that ran the length of her body. “Why would you help me?”

“Because Narcissa asked me too.” Hermione lifted her wand and began chatting the spell to heal the wound on her side. Bella just laid still and let her work.

After an hour or so Severus came into the room. Hermione was laying on her back resting as Bellatrix slept.

“Lucius, what has happened?”

Lucius felt immense relief that Severus was finally there. “Potter broke into Gringotts and stole the cup. Our Lord called us to the bank and demanded that we destroy it and as many Goblins as we could find. Then he came back here and tortured Bellatrix and interrogated Hermione.”

“Hermione? She’s been here for weeks now. What could he possibly hope to find out from her?”

“He wanted to know how Potter knew about which vault the cup was in because last we knew he didn’t have that figured out. We surmised that Potter guessed it from Bella’s interrogation of Griphook.”

Bella moaned. “I would like to know how Potter got the sword from my vault.”

“Harry fell into a pond one night when we were in the woods. It was freezing cold and he said he could see from edge that there was something at the bottom so he stepped out on to the ice to get a better look but then he fell through. He swam to the bottom grabbed the sword and then couldn’t find his way out. Ron wasn’t with us at the time but he was trying to get back to us and he showed up just in time to pull Harry from the freezing water. They used the sword to destroy the locket that was driving us all crazy.”

“That’s the dumbest story I’ve ever heard.” Bella was saying still too weak to get up.

“It does seem pretty crazy. The sword comes to Gryffindors when they need it. We really needed it. Harry was getting sicker, I couldn’t eat and Ron abandoned us. Things were looking pretty desperate. Harry followed someone’s patronous to the pond. We still don’t know whose it was but once the locket was destroyed Harry got better, I stopped vomiting every time I ate something and Ron stopped being so paranoid.” Hermione laughed. “I wonder how it got out of your vault too.”

“I need to talk to you in private, Lucius.” Severus said looking around the room. “Where’s Narcissa? Why isn’t she in here healing Bella?”

Bella chuckled. “I refused her help so she left me to die. Bloody do gooder gryffindors. They’ll help you when you’re down even if you don’t want the help.”

Hermione frowned. “My mistress would be sad to lose her sibling. Although, I can’t see what the appeal is she loves you and I don’t want to see her sad.”

“I don’t believe for one minute that this isn’t some kind of act to keep yourself alive. It’s very slytherin of you.” Bella said eyeing Hermione suspiciously.

Lucius held out his hand. “Wand please, my Pet.” Hermione handed him her wand back. He then used his other hand to pull her to her feet.

She followed them back to Lucius room. “It’s time to reveal the spell for the grave.” Severus said firmly.

Lucius nodded. “I was thinking about that today. I think you were right to tell Draco that if he ever had the chance that he should allow Potter to disarm him.”

“You found something?”

Lucius pulled out an old piece of parchment “I found this obscure accounting of a wand that was in a pureblood family. The wand was being passed from father to eldest son for several generations upon the father’s death. That is until one of the daughters disarmed her father. The wand didn’t work for him after that and eventually he died. The family thought that the wand would just pass to the oldest son as normal but that wasn’t the case. The wand never worked for the eldest son either and when he died his sister took the wand. According to this she married a man named Perevell. They had three sons.”

Severus pulled the parchment from Lucius’ hand “Perevell? What does this have to do with the elder wand?”

Hermione scoffed .“Severus, the three brothers were the Perevell brothers. That family has a history of wand problems.”

“If the elder wand follows those rules it wouldn’t matter who killed Dumbledore what would matter though is who disarmed him and then when he died it wouldn’t matter.” Lucius said.

“Draco disarmed him and then I killed him. If Voldemort finds out that Draco is possibly the bearer of the wand he’ll kill him without a second thought.”

Lucius groaned. “We didn’t get this far to have that happen.”

“Call him Lucius.”

“But he just left.”

“We need him to have that wand for the final battle. There are two Horcruxes left. Potter will be at Hogwarts in the next few days. When he gets there Voldemort will call him out. We are almost finished.”

“How do you know where Harry will be?” Hermione asked.

“I know him well enough that he will figure out that the last item is hidden at Hogwarts.”

Hermione nodded. “You are probably right.”

“What about your men Severus?”

“I’ve been giving them their missions all along. If it comes to all-out war they will do what I’ve told them to do. I’m hoping that Potter will see that Our Lord won’t hesitate to attack children and he’ll surrender.”

Hermione frowned. “Those children will be heavily armed. The DA has been training really hard. They will fight to give Harry as much time as he needs. He only has to find two more horcruxes. Are they both hidden at the school?”

Severus took a deep breath and exhaled. Hermione and Lucius could both tell that there was something that he wanted to tell them. “Where are Draco and Narcissa?” Hermione hopped up and ran to Narcissa’s room. A few minutes later and they were gathered. “As you know I was working closely with Dumbledore until shortly before his death. Hermione, you may not know this yet but Dumbledore was dying. When he heard of Draco’s mission he asked me to kill him and to not let Draco do it. He was like a father to me but I did it to strengthen my relationship with Our Lord. He was a manipulative old bastard. He knew all along what Potter was and didn’t tell anyone. He was fattening Potter up as you would a lamb for slaughter.”

“What do you mean, what is Harry? How is he a lamb?” Hermione asked feeling rather indignant about how Severus was talking about Dumbledore.

“The next Horcrux is Ravenclaw's Diadem. He hid it in the room of requirement. I already know that as soon as the wards are down it will be Draco’s mission to retrieve the diadem. Then Potter will have to search out Nagini. The snake has been in hiding ever since Potter escaped the manor. Our Lord has not admitted this to me but I think he fears that Hermione would sense that she is a horcrux and try and kill her.”

“If I had known I would have.” Hermione admitted. “But what about Harry being a lamb.”

“I’m getting to that, when Our Lord killed Lilly he created a seventh horcrux. I’m not even sure he realizes this. He’s so bent on killing the boy that I don’t think he has even considered the possibility.”

Hermione paled. “Harry’s a horcrux? How is it that nobody knows this?” Hermione thought about Harry’s prophecy. “Neither can live while the other survives? It says something like that right?”

Severus nodded. “Dumbledore thought that if Harry had command of all three deathly hallows he could survive the killing curse and only that part of him which was Voldemort’s soul would die. Harry would survive to continue the fight. He would have to kill Harry twice in order for him to be dead. Here’s the tricky part. Voldemort has to use Harry’s wand or in this case Draco’s wand or the elder wand.”

Draco frowned. “I don’t understand. Potter took my wand when he escaped the manor. I let him disarm me like you said to.”

“That’s right and you disarmed Dumbledore which made you the bearer of the Elder wand and then Potter disarmed you which makes him the bearer. Potter currently has control of all three hallows.”

Hermione smiled. “If he only knew.”

“Yes well that will be your mission find Potter bring him to me preferably before Our Lord decides he’s done with me. He already thinks that I control the Elder wand. He wants to wait till he has it in hand before he kills me just in case he’s wrong. But if you can imagine, that’s his idea of pillow talk.”

“What like ‘that was a great fuck Sevy it’s a shame I’m going to have to kill you’.”

Severus nodded. “yes, almost those exact words. I don’t think he’s ever called me Sevy though.”

Draco said “I wish I could find humor in that.”

Hermione rubbed his arm. “When this is all over we can laugh okay.”

“I already know what your missions will be. Draco will go with two other students who are also death eaters to retrieve the diadem and then bring it out of the school to Our Lord. Hermione will be free to search out the next generation and elf transport them to the dungeons. I pushed for her to be trusted off leash so that she would be free to perform that task. Some of my men will be down there keeping the peace. I’m pretty sure that some of the slytherins will decide that they want to fight either with their parents or for their friends. It will be their job to make sure they don’t leave the common room. That is what HE wants you to do.”

Hermione smiled “but you have something different planned don’t you.”

He smiled “Of Course I do. I want us all to survive this war but I’m afraid that Our Lord has different plans for me. Hermione I want you to find Potter and take him to the room of requirement. Hopefully Draco will have found it by then. Once there depending on who he is with Draco he will either turn it over willingly or put of some sort of fight over it to make it look good. Please don’t let Potter kill him.”

Hermione laughed. “I won’t let him do that.” She said bumping Draco’s shoulder.

“You will want to destroy it as soon as you have it in hand. Voldemort will be able to sense it and there will be enough of his followers around that it could easily fall back into HIS hands. Once that is done bring Potter to me. I have memories that he needs to see.” Severus looked at each of them. “I think this will all be over in a matter of days. Lucius is going to call Him now and give him the spell to break the wards around Dumbledore’s grave. Once Potter learns that HE has the elder wand he’ll come to Hogwarts in search of the last horcrux.”

“Could it really be over in the next few days, this nightmare?”

Severus nodded. “Or we could all die. Or Potter could win and a new nightmare will begin with the aura department coming and taking us all off to Azkaban. Or even worse Potter could lose and our betrayal could be revealed and we could all spend the rest of our long lives being tortured.”

Hermione held up her hand “please Master Severus don’t go there. And I’d like to remind you this is Harry Potter we are talking about the boy with all the luck.”

Severus shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”

Lucius sighed. “Is everyone ready?” When no one argued he rolled up his sleeve and pressed Hermione’s wand to his arm. “Now we wait.”

Hermione’s stretched. “I wonder if I have time to shower.”

“Hermione, if you need a shower you are not ready. It’s too late for that now.” He said motioning to his arm where the snake part of the tattoo was doing a little hoola dance.

The Family sat in the ballroom waiting for him to return. Hermione had fallen asleep in Narcissa’s arms but as soon as he passed through the wards with Nagini she woke up. It had been several hours before Voldemort returned to the Manor. It was one of the few times that she had actually seen the snake. And now that she knew what it was she could feel that it held a horcrux. She wondered briefly if Harry would feel different once the Horcrux was removed from him. Lucius went out to meet him as the rest of the family prepared. Severus had returned to Hogwarts to prepare for Potter’s arrival.

“Lucius this better be important.”

Lucius bowed. “I’ve been able to create a spell to disable both the wards surrounding Dumbledore’s grave and another one for Hogwarts.”

Voldemort smiled. “I knew I could count on you. Let me see it.” Lucius held out the parchment to him. Voldemort read the spell and smiled. He turned and left without even saying thank you.

Once she was sure he was gone Hermione sighed. “We waited up for him all this time and he didn’t even say thank you.”

Draco laughed. “He doesn’t need to thank us for doing our jobs, Hermione.”

“We should all try to get some sleep. If Severus is right tomorrow could be a long day.”


	10. Snape's betrayal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snape's plan come together and there's not turning back.
> 
> also a very short chapter. I'll post another asap.

Hermione apparated directly into the main hall of Hogwarts once Voldemort successfully disabled the ward using Luicus spell. Everything was going as Severus had predicted and now she was racing to find Harry. Everyone was running around and death eaters and order members were throwing hexes around. A few times she had been caught in the cross fire and the death eaters that were familiar with her yelled for her to get down. She worried that she might get herself killed if she didn’t find Harry soon. She managed to tag three of the lower year’s student that had been disabled per Severus’ instructions. House elves were popping in and out of the battle to move the children to safer locations. Finally she found Neville. “Neville, where’s Harry?” She screamed over the noise of the battle.

Neville grabbed Hermione and hugged her. “We thought you were dead.” He shouted.

“No but I really need to find Harry.”

“Luna sent him to talk to the ghost of the grey lady.”

Hermione frowned. “Where does she haunt?”

“I don’t know.” He yelled back to her. Neville ducked behind a wall to catch his breath.

“Neville becareful.”

Hermione kissed his cheek and ran out from behind the wall. She spotted a death eater that she knew and signaled to her that Neville was hiding behind the wall. The woman tipped her wand to Hermione. She could only hope that the woman was able to disable Neville without hurting him. She caught sight of Luna and Ron coming down the stairs. “Ron, Luna.” She called out to them.

“Blimey Hermione, your alive.” She ran up to Ron and gave him a big hug.

“I missed you.” She smiled at Luna “Thanks for helping them. There’s so much to tell you both but right now I really need to find Harry.

Luna smiled “it was my pleasure Hermione. Did you enjoy your stay with my cousins?”

Hermione frowned. “I didn’t realize you were related to the Malfoy’s.” She shook her head that was something that they would explore later. “I need to find Harry. He really needs to go to the room of requirement.”

“Hermione!”

Hermione spun around “Harry!” She rushed forward and hugged him too. “Come on there are important things that we need to do.” She took his hand and dragged him to the room of lost things trying to answer many of his questions but it was too noisy for them to really talk. She paced outside the room concentrating on the lost room. The door appeared and the three ran inside only to find Draco with his old class mates Zabini and Goyle already searching the room. Hermione froze she had no idea which of the two boys was with Severus’ army and which was actually a death eater.

“Draco, it’s your filthy mudblood slave.” Goyle stated angrily. “What’s she doing with Potter?”

They all had there wands drawn on each other. Ron retorted angrily “She’s not his mudblood slave.”

Hermione frowned. “Ron, don’t go there right now. We need to find the diadem.”

Zabini stepped closer to Draco and asked “who’s side is she on?”

Draco shook his head and said “not now” to him under his breath motioning to Goyle. “Hermione you’re supposed to be helping to save the students.”

Hermione groaned and to herself thinking she didn’t know how she was going to explain this to Harry and Ron. “Master Draco, I know but I found Harry and knew he was going to end up here anyway so I brought him along.”

“Did she just call Draco Master?” Ron asked trying to assess the situation.

Goyle laughed. “Perfect, we can bring the diadem and Harry Potter back to Our Lord.”

Hermione groaned she was beginning to get the idea that it was Goyle who was the death eater.

“It’s good to see you are alive.” Harry said to Draco. He was looking around the room trying to see the diadem without taking his eyes off the group of slytherins.

Hermione held out her hand “Accio diadem.” She tried making her collar glow bright enough to blind.

Goyle grunted “Merlin Draco you collar could blind a person.”

Draco smiled. “Goyle, it only glows as bright as the power behind the spell. That was a pretty powerful one, Hermione, I already tried that though.”

“I should have figured.” She said smiling.

“Goyle go and search down there, while I keep an eye on our guests.” Zabini suggested.

“Malfoy, just kill the blood traitor and rein in your slave then we can wrap up Potter and bring him to Our Lord.” Goyle was suggesting when Ron shot off a curse at him. Once the curses started flying Draco and Harry ran off searching for the diadem. Ron chased down Goyle and cornered him. He managed to dodge a killing curse and sent a stack of chairs down on top of Goyle who was too slow with his blocking charm.

Hermione stood with her wand pointed at Zabini. Zabini had his pointed right back at her. “We should be helping to look for the diadem.” She said to him.

“I think not we’re going to stand right here and wait to see who finds it first.”

“But there’s no time. There is so much to do.”

She could here Draco yelling “I found it. I found it.” Then the sound of curses flying all the while Zabini held his wand on Hermione.

Ron came running down the aisle. “Come on, Harry’s got it.”

Hermione looked behind him but didn’t see Harry coming “Ron where is he?’ she asked when he finally reached her.

Ron stopped and looked behind him again. “He was right behind me.” A second later fire erupted from the fallen stack of chairs. Draco came running around the corner with the diadem in his hand. Harry was right behind him carrying both of their wands.

Harry was screaming “Run! Run! Just run for the door.”

The five of them took off towards the door as the fire quickly spread throughout the room. The path to the door wasn’t straight they had to weave up and down isle trying to find their way out. Finally a door was in sight fire engulfed the furniture surrounding the entry and their path was blocked. Hermione pointed her wand and cast a warding spell she had learned from Lucius at the manor but had never had a chance to try. A blast of cold air cleared a path to the door and the five of them collapsed in the hall.

Hermione sat up quickly “Draco the diadem.” Draco tossed the diadem to her “Harry we have to destroy it right now.” Ron pulled the basilk fang that Luna and him had used to destroy the cup out of his pocket and handed it to Hermione. She tossed it to Draco. “It’s your’s, do it and make it quick.” Ron and Harry looked at her in shock.

Draco stabbed the Diadem through the jeweled pendant releasing that part of Voldemort’s soul and breaking the curse surrounding it.

Hermione opened the room of requirement door and Zabini kicked the screaming diadem into the flames. “He couldn’t see us could he?” Zabini asked worriedly.

Hermione shook her head no. “I don’t think so he didn’t know who destroyed the locket until I told him it was Ron.”

“Hermione, why would you tell him that?” Ron asked shocked.

“Malfoy, I thought you were dead. I saw him cut you up. I can still hear your screams in my head.”

Hermione frowned. “I’m sorry Harry. There’s so much to tell you.” Hermione gasped as she felt Lucius briefly suppress her magic. “Your father is calling me.” She looked at Draco and said “It’s time he’s meeting with Severus.”

“Do you know where yet?” Draco asked her.

“We’ve got to get moving.” She pulled Harry to his feet. “There’s something I have to show you but we don’t have a lot of time.”

“Hermione.” She stopped when Draco called her “You’re a Malfoy remember that. Keep your head about you.” He pulled her into him kissing her deeply. He smirked at Ron and Harry when they both stared at him slack jawed. “Potter, my wand.” Harry looked down at his hand where both of Draco’s wands sat. He started to give him the original wand but Draco stopped him. “That’s your wand now.” Harry handed him the other wand. Draco smiled at him and said “good luck we are all counting on you.”

Hermione stole one last kiss. “Good luck. See you in a few.”

She pulled Harry down the hall “Harry you need to open your mind to Voldemort and find out where he is but whatever you do don’t tell him about me, Draco or Zabini. If you do he'll know he's being betrayed”

Harry paused to catch his breath. “Hermione, what the hell is going on?”

“Harry focus.” She snapped at him “We need to find HIM before he kills Severus.”

“Severus? You mean Snape right?” Ron asked. “What have they done to you Hermione?”

“They saved me Ron which is more than I can say for you.” Hermione had grown bitter with the blood traitors since she had learned what the Malfoys were really fighting for. “Harry please where is he?”

Harry closed his eyes and opened his mind. “I see water and a boat.”

“They are in the boat house. Let’s go.” She took off down the hall again.

Once they were in the courtyard they had to start defending themselves. Most of the hexes were flying right over their heads but a few of Voldemort's followers saw her with Potter. Hermione stopped and put glowing red marks on a few of the students that they passed not even stopping to see if they were dead or alive. “What’s with the red marks Hermione.”

“The Malfoy house elves are moving the students to safety.” She said as if that explained it all.

They arrived at the boat house in time to see Severus bitten by Nagini. Hermione cursed under her breath. She had read a few spell about removing plant venom but had no idea if they would work on magic snake venom. Once Voldemort had left the area they ran to check on Severus.

“Hermione, you made it.” She began crying when she saw his injuries. She fumbled with the vials she had in her robes. “Potter, I have something for you. I couldn’t give it to you any sooner than this.” He coughed and blood splattered from his mouth. “Hermione.” He motioned to his face. She pulled her wand out and cast the spell to pull the memories from his mind. She placed them into the pensive vial and handed it to Harry. Without stopping she began chanting the healing spells. Severus smiled at her “good girl. I knew you could do it. Harry, take the memories to the pensive in my office.” Severus gave Harry a weak smile “I loved your mother ya know” he said before he collapsed.

Hermione cried “I’m not going to fail this Severus you’re not going to die.” She looked at Harry. “There’s no time Harry you have to go now.”

“He’s dead Hermione. Just leave him.” Ron said to her.

“Ron it may be easy for you to leave people but I’m not giving up yet. Just go. I’m done fighting that battle.” She returned to chatting over his body as Harry pulled Ron from the boat house.


	11. Chapter 11

Voldemort let out a scream and collapsed against a tree. He screamed in frustration again as another one of his Horcruxes was destroyed. “Lucius, your son failed to get to the diadem before Potter.” He said angrily to him. Lucius frowned at that. “I have a personal matter to discuss with Severus.”

Once he had gone with Nagini. Lucius concentrated on suppressing Hermione’s magic. He only hoped that she would get the signal and find Severus before it was too late. The few inner circle members that were hiding out in the Forbidden forest with Lord Voldemort were looking around nervously. Whispers of he can’t win and we should flee were running rampant through the group. There were a few true followers who were trying to hold the ranks together and Bellatrix was one of them. She tried to draw Narcissa into the effort but Narcissa was still angry at her sister for the scene she caused yesterday. Finally Lucius spoke. “We are at an end to this conflict Our Lord will duel with the Harry Potter and the boy will die.” Which was true but he didn’t elaborate on the fact that the boy would be resurrected and cheat death. He said hoping to keep the most dangerous of the group from fleeing. He wanted to see them all sent to Azkaban even Bellatrix. If he could get them locked away it would almost be worth the trip for himself. Narcissa held his hand showing the crowd of death eaters her support of her husband.

Rubeus Hagrid had been captured early on in the conflict. Earlier in the day, before Potter had arrived, Severus had sent him out into the woods to find a root that was need for a potion. Per Hermione’s request he wouldn’t be part of the battle. Hermione would have had half the school removed from the battle in the same way but Severus had told her that she had to decide who and that Hagrid was probably the easiest to take care of. Severus was happy to do it too. Even though Severus wasn’t Hagrid’s favorite person, Severus had enjoyed the antics of the half giant. He followed the big man into the woods, stunned him, and left him tied to a tree and then went back to the school as if nothing at all had happened.

Now the half giant sat tied and surround by death eaters. Lucius had never liked the man but Severus had left instructions that he not be harmed. His wailing was giving him a head ache. He pointed his wand at him from across the clearing and cast a silencing spell on him. He smiled to himself when the wand responded to him with very little effort. Once Voldemort had used the spell to open Dumbledore’s grave he had reward Lucius by returning his wand to him. At first the wand hadn’t responded well when he had tried a few simple spells. He worried that it might have begun changing allegiances and wouldn’t ever be his again. Then Hermione called her wand to her to heal an injured man. His wand began to pulse with power just as it had when he first got it at Ollivander's years ago. His relief was immense and now he was able to use it like they had never been separated.

“Lucius, were you able to signal Hermione.” Narcissa asked quietly.

“I did what I could. I can only hope she wasn’t too distracted to feel it.”

“What do you think is taking so long?”

“I don’t know.” He said thinking of all the possibilities. “Maybe Severus is trying to talk him out of it.”

“It’s been too long.” Narcissa said fretting over the outcome.

Voldemort reappeared with Nagini at his side even as dark as it was in the forest blood could be seen on her skin. “Lucius, Severus will no longer be serving me. You will have to take his place as my general.”

Lucius tried not to show his shock at suddenly being promoted into Severus’ position. “My Lord, it will be an honor to serve you. May I ask where Severus has gone?”

“Severus has taken his leave of this world.” He said sounding as though he regretted it. Holding the Elder wand out he cast the spell once again to speak to those who were fighting. "You have fought valiantly. Lord Voldemort knows how to value bravery," came his cold, high voice. Everyone stopped and listened although they remained on guard, wands raised. "Yet you have sustained heavy losses." Bellatrix laughed openly. "If you continue to resist me, you will all die, one by one. I do not wish this to happen. Every drop of magical blood spilled is a loss and a waste. Lord Voldemort is merciful. I command my forces to retreat immediately." At the battle ground death eaters one by one disappeared in a swirl of smoke. Leaving the students and staff shocked at the rapidity of their retreat. "You have one hour. Dispose of your dead with dignity. Treat your injured. I speak now, Harry Potter, Directly to you. You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself. I shall wait for one hour in the Forbidden Forest. If, at the end of that hour, you have not come to me, have not given yourself up, then battle recommences. This time, I shall enter the fray myself, Harry Potter, and I shall find you, and I shall punish every man, woman, and child who has tried to conceal you from me. One hour."

Death eaters that had been fighting began arriving just as he finished his speech. Narcissa began treating those that were wounded as they waited for Potter to arrive. Lucius looked around at their numbers. He wondered if some had retreated to other locations. After a few minutes Ludovic had the nerve to ask what was on Lucius’ mind. “Is this all that remains of our army?” He said looking around at how few had returned.

For the first time since he had returned from his meeting with Severus Voldemort seemed to take notice of his surroundings. He looked around and as though he was going to fly into another tantrum. “Why haven’t more of my followers rejoined us, Lucius?”

Lucius bowed “My Lord, I cannot answer that.”

Voldemort looked around the group of about one hundred of his followers. “Could it be that so many have fallen to children and their teachers?”

“Surely, My Lord, they have regrouped at another location.”

“Severus gave the instructions of where they were to retreat to.” He snapped out at Lucius. “He would not have given them the wrong place.” Voldemort looked around at the men and women who had regrouped with them. Lucius thought that he could literally see the gears working in Voldemort’s head. “No, Severus would not have misled them.” He stated firmly. “They are cowards and deserters and when we have won those that have fled will be dealt with.”

“Of course My Lord, we will find them and sort them out once victory is ours.” Lucius said benevolently.

Voldemort began pacing around the little clearing while they waited for Potter. He was starting to worry that he would be returning to the battle with less of his army then expected in tow. It had been nearly an hour and there was no sign of the boy anywhere.

“My Lord, I don’t think Potter is coming we will have to go back to the battle.” Ludovic said bowing to him.

“He will come. He’s a Gryffindor. His courage and bravery will force him to come.”

“Yes, of course My Lord.” Ludovic said bowing again “But if he doesn’t…” He trailed off from finishing his statement when Voldemort turned toward him with his wand drawn. The bolt of magic left the elder wand without him even uttering a curse. Ludovic fell over dead. Bellatrix let out a cackling laugh as the other followers stood shocked at how easily Voldemort had preform the curse without even speaking.

 

 

Hermione sat with Severus as she waited for the healing spells to begin taking affect. She had cast so many that her collar was glowing brightly and she was sure it could be seen from the courtyard where most of the battle had taken place. She heard voices approaching and began to panic. There was no place to hide and Severus wasn’t ready to be moved. She tried to conceal them but the glow from the collar couldn’t be concealed.

“I think you were right. That’s got to be her collar glowing.” She heard a familiar voice say.

Balinchk peeked around the corner and smiled at her. “It is her. I told you I’m a werewolf I can smell her a mile away.”

Hermione froze. She worried that now that the battle had begun and she clearly wasn’t doing what she had been ordered to do that they might decide to take revenge out on her. She straightened herself and tried smiling. She wanted to give them the impression that she was a Malfoy and that she shouldn’t be questioned. “Gentlemen, shouldn’t you have retreated to the forbidden forest with the rest of the death eaters?”

Balinchk smirked at her. She may give the appearance that she’s not afraid but he could tell by her scent that she was. “Nah, we’ve got or own plans just like you.”

Simmons chuckled. “Yeah, you’re not the only one who’s got a hidden agenda.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about but I think that you should retreat with the other death eaters.” She tried saying hoping that they could hear the authority in her voice even if she couldn’t.

Simmon crouched down next to her. “and what abandon our charge. We were given very strict orders from HIM and Severus that it was our responsibility to keep you safe.”

Balinchk growled at her and said “you haven’t made that job very easy tonight. We had trouble keeping up with you. And then you disappeared in the hall only to reappear around the corner with four other people including Potter and your Master, Draco Malfoy. What do you suppose HE would say if he knew that the two of you were fraternizing with the enemy?”

Hermione shook her head “No, No please you can’t tell HIM that. He’ll kill us all.”

Simmon stood back up and slapped Balinchk on the arm “quit it will you, your scaring her.”

Severus groaned. Hermione refocused her attention on him “Severus, are you awake?”

He groaned again. “I’d like to be asleep but it’s too noisy here.”

She cast another spell over him to see how he was healing. “I think we can move you now. Can you call your house elf?”

The house elf Hinks appeared a second later. “Master is calling Hinks?” He said as he bowed to Severus. He waved to Hermione. “Slave Hermione how my I serve you?” The elf asked.

“As you can see Master Severus has been injured, I was hoping that you could take him back to his bed at Malfoy Manor without injuring him further and stay with him to make sure he doesn’t regress.” Hinks nodded his head and levitated Severus into the air. He snapped his finger and Severus and Hinks disappeared. Hermione huffed “I was kind of hoping that he would have taken me with him.”

“So now what do you have planned?”

Hermione shrugged. “That was the end of my mission. I was to heal Severus and take him to safety.” She stood up and looked at the burning castle. “I think I’d like to find Master Draco and see how his mission is going.” She looked at them and asked “what were you orders? If you stay with me will you be deserters?”

Simmons shook his head no “Severus, gave very strict orders that we were to keep you safe. He said that if something happened to you we’d all land ourselves in Azkaban.”

Hermione nodded. “I see, well I’m going to find Master Draco and then maybe help with the injured.”


	12. Chapter 12

Harry sat on the stairs of the main entrance. Students, teachers and others were milling about helping the injured and cleaning up from the battle. He had just come from the Head Masters office and was still reeling from the shock of what he had seen. He kept running over in his mind how he hadn’t been able to see it for himself. All the clues and the hints and the way he could feel Voldemort he just couldn’t understand how he didn’t see it. What was more confusing was that somehow Snape had been at the center of it all. Snape of all people was behind most of all the luck he had been having. He heard someone approaching him from behind but didn’t make a move to do anything. He had resigned himself that he would go to Voldemort and finish this thing and then he could finally rest. He was surprise when the person stood next to him and didn’t say anything. He looked up to see who it was. “Malfoy.” He said by way of greeting. Draco sat down one step up from him but didn’t respond. “So I guess you probably know.” Again he kept his mouth shut. Harry groaned. “I saw Severus’ memories. I saw how he saved your family and Hermione.” He sighed. “Why are you even out here if you aren’t going to talk to me?”

“Hermione is coming.” He motioned to the stairs to the boat house. “I originally came out here to meet her but figured you could use some company. I know you have to go soon.”

Harry nodded. “I do. How much do you know?”

“Enough to stay alive” he said casually. “Severus has many secrets but some were important enough that we needed to know them in order to direct the outcome.”

“Harry.” Hermione said as she approached. “I was afraid I’d miss you.” Harry stood and pulled her into an embrace. She was a little surprised at first but hugged him back until he pulled away from her. “Harry, it’s going to be alright. You have command of all three hallows.”

He nodded. “I wish I could have your faith in this.”

“Potter my uncle wouldn’t have gotten us this far if he didn’t believe in you.”

He looked at Draco. “All this time I thought I was so clever, that Dumbledore was still guiding me. Now I see that it’s been Snape all along.”

Hermione squeezed his arm. “It’s getting late. I think you should wear you cloak into the woods and hold the stone in your hand.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” He sighed and said “I gotta go.” He turned to leave them but Draco grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

“Hey, I’ve got something I’ve wanted to give to you but we never seemed to be on the same team.” Harry looked at him perplexed as Draco pulled him into his body and kissed him on the lips.

At first Harry was a bit shocked but then he returned the kiss. When he pulled back he smiled at Draco. “I’m going to meet with Voldemort and you decide now is a good time to kiss me?”

Draco shrugged. “It was a good luck kiss.”

Harry nodded. “Well, thank you. But I’m not sure that was enough luck.” He pulled Draco into him and pressed his lips to Draco’s. Draco was stunned but relaxed into his hold. Harry pressed his tongue to his lips silently demanding to intensify to kiss. Draco opened his mouth and allowed him entry. Harry moaned as Draco submitted to his hold on him. He broke the kiss and smiled at him. “When this is done I think I would like to explore that further.”

Draco nodded. “I was hoping you would.”

He glanced at Hermione. “You’ll take care of her right?”

“She belongs to the Malfoy family now we always take care of what is ours.” Hermione blushed.

Harry glanced at the two death eaters that were standing behind Hermione. “I thought Voldemort called for a retreat.”

“They are Severus’ men Harry, my body guards.” He pursed his lips and nodded then turned and walked away.

Draco held out his hand “Come slave we need to find McGonagall or whoever is in charge in there.” She took his hand and walked inside.

Inside the main hall the injured laid sprawled out in a make shift hospital style. Hermione could see the Weasley family further down the hall. They were standing around crying with each other. Draco motioned towards them and said “one of the twins has been killed. I’m not sure which one though. They are grieving.” Hermione frowned and started to pull away from him to go to the family. Draco pulled her back “No.” he said simply with no explanation.

“But Draco they are like my family I have to go to them.”

He shook his head. “No, there will be time for that later, right now we need to talk to whoever is in charge.”

Hermione nodded in understanding as she looked down the hall at Ron. He saw her and noticed Draco holding her hand. He glared back at her angrily. Hermione glanced down at their joined hands and tried to release it but Draco squeezed it harder almost hurting her. “Master Please. Ron is watching me.”

Draco looked over at Ron and then back to Hermione. “Slave, we are not done here yet and you still belong to the Malfoy family.”

“Yes but.”

“But what?” He asked angrily.

“Nothing.” She answered regaining her composure. He was right they were almost done and soon she could explain everything. Ron would have to forgive her and everything would go back to the way it was. She looked around the room and spotted McGonagall. “There she is.” She said pointing with her other hand. He nodded and dragged her across the room. Simmons and Balinchk followed close behind. “Professor.” Hermione said interrupting her conversation with Shacklebolt.

“Ms. Granger.” She pursed her lips and looked at the three men standing with her. “Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Simmons Mr. Balinchk. I believe that your Master called for a truce.”

“That’s just it Professor their Master is Severus Snape and he did not call for this truce nor did he call for a retreat. I wanted to talk to you about their defection.”

Shacklebolt laughed. “You can’t defect at the end of a war and hope for clemency.”

Draco stepped forward “Severus Snape and myself have been keeping books on everyone that had joined HIS followers.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure we will consider whatever information that traitor can provide us.”

“He’s not a traitor” Hermione huffed out starting to lose her patience. “You don’t even know half of what he’s done for the wizarding world.” Draco gripped her shoulder signaling her to calm down. She took a deep breath “That’s not what we need to talk to you about. Severus was recruiting people to fight in this battle. You may have noticed that a lot of people have only been injured and not killed.”

“We were fortunate that more haven’t been lost, although we have children that are missing.”

Draco groaned. “They aren’t missing they are in the dungeons with of Severus’ people.”

“Snape’s people kidnapped the children.” Shacklebolt asked in shock.

“That is what we are trying to tell you. There are people here working against Voldemort other than those that you recruited.”

Hermione sighed. “Master, this is getting us nowhere.” She said to Draco and then to McGonagall. “When Voldemort comes he will see the defectors and know that he has been deceived.”

“What are you talking about Ms. Granger?” McGonagall asked frustrated with the interruption.

“We will deal with Voldemort when he comes for Harry.” Shacklebolt said sounding confident with his army.

“Harry has gone to him.” Draco stated. “Voldemort will think he has killed him but he can’t be killed. He’ll bring Harry back here and I will have to go to…”

“The point is that we need you to be ready for it.”

Draco nodded “The list is in the Headmasters Snape’s office. I have the other list at Malfoy manor. We will be expecting someone to retrieve it when all of this is over.”

“I don’t think I understand, are you telling us that Severus Snape has been keeping track of all the Deather eaters wrong doings and that he has an army in Voldemort’s ranks that are defecting.”

Hermione asked “What don’t you understand? It sounds like you’ve got it perfectly.”

“Did you say that Harry has gone to him?” McGonagall asked back tracking the conversation.

“They are coming! The Death eaters and Voldemort They are coming! ” Someone was crying from the entrance.

Draco took Hermione’s hand and began rushing toward the court yard with her. “When he comes I may be called to him. Depending on what Harry does. I have to play like I’m still his loyal servant.” Hermione nodded.

McGonagall grunted “and you’re not?” as they reached the clearing.

Hermione shook her head “No, he’s not, and neither are many of those that have been forced to work for him.”

“There are many that have been working against him.”

“They’ve got Hagrid. Severus said he’d make sure he was safe.”

Draco frowned “Well he’s alive.”

“That’s not the point Master; everything has gone as planned up until this point.”

Draco shrugged. “It doesn’t matter Pet. He is alive.”

Voldemort led the small group of Death Eaters towards the castle. He motioned for his men to lead Hagrid forward carrying Harry. “As you can see I have killed The Great Harry Potter. I have won.” He said and those of his followers that were with him cheered.”

Cries of disbelief erupted from the castle. McGonagall looked at Hermione. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Harry has possession of all three Hallows.” Hermione said smiling. McGonagall just frowned.

“I can be merciful. I know the value of your bravery. I am offering all those that join me now the opportunity to serve me in the new wizarding world order.” Voldemort stalked around smiling at all of his people. “We will welcome you into our ranks.” The death eaters cheered. “All will be forgiven.” Voldemort spied several of his followers standing by the side entrances. He turned and said quietly to Lucius. “I believe you may have been right. There are several of our people that have remained at the castle. Severus must have foreseen this ending.”

Lucius bowed thinking to himself if only you knew what Severus has foreseen. “My Lord he was a most valued servant.”

Voldemort had a distant look for a moment before he turned to the castle. “Lucius call your son to us. Let them see that I can be forgiving.”

“Draco come and bow to our Lord.”

Draco gave Hermione’s hand one last squeeze before he released it and went to Voldemort. He knelt briefly before raising and joining his father. Lucius hugged him and then turned to lead him away.

“Lucius, you are forgetting your slave.” Voldemort said loud enough that both groups of people gathered could hear.

Lucius paused trying to think if Hermione would even come to him now that she was being held by her friends. If she didn’t come this charade of her being tamed and owned would be over and he knew that they had to keep it up until Harry could fight the battle again. Nagini was still alive so there was one last horcrux. Lucius stepped forward standing next to Voldemort “Slave Hermione, come to me now.”

Hermione’s heart was racing. She didn’t expect that Voldemort would think of her in the final battle. Professor McGonagall had wrapped her arm around her when she heard Voldemort ask Lucius to call for his slave. She had heard from the order that Hermione was seen in Diagon alley and had heard her call Draco Master and could only assume that he was referring to her. “You’re not going back to him.”

Hermione pushed her arm away. “I have to go. Just remember what I told you this isn’t over.”

Hermione stood tall and walked into the courtyard followed by to Simmons and Balinchk. She looked at Harry as she walked by looking for any signs of life. As she reached Voldemort she knelt all the way down and bowed before him. “You may rise slave and go to your Master.” Voldemort smiled at the men. “You did well and kept our Pet alive. You will be rewarded.” Both men bowed to him and then joined the others.

Hermione stood and bowed to Lucius. He patted her cheek and led her back to the group that had gathered. Narcissa took her hand and pulled her through Voldemort's followers with Draco and Lucius following her. They could see more of Severus' men coming up behind Voldemort's followers. They were now surrounded on all sides, with the order members, student and teachers in front and Severus' army on both sides and behind. Once they were behind the group of Severus' men  Narcissa asked “what news of Severus.”

“Mistress, he is recovering at the manor.” Behind them they could hear the sound of hexes being fired and cries of the renewed battle.

Lucius looked back at the castle. “This is it. If we leave now we’ll be deserters. If he wins we’ll be punished.”

“He’s not going to win, Master.” Hermione said with confidence.

As soon as he took her hand she felt the pull of Disapparation.


	13. Chapter 13

“I hope you are right.” Lucius said once they arrived in the entry of the Manor.

Narcissa started for the stairs “I wish to check on Severus.” They followed her to his rooms.

Severus sat in his chair in the sitting room part of his quarters. The house elf Henks sat on a ottoman sipping a cup of tea. The four of them looked at him in shock.

“Severus, you’re up?” Narcissa stated in shock.

“It would appear that is the case.” He said sarcastically.

“But how, Voldemort said that he killed you.”

Severus smiled “I think I was dead or very close to it.” He winked at her. “But you my dear are an excellent teach and your student did a fabulous job.”

“Mistress I didn’t know how to remove Nagini’s venom. We never covered snake bites.”

“I never considered that we would need to.” Narcissa she said frowning.

“I used a spell for removing the Venomous Tentaculas poison.”

Severus nodded “that was quick thinking it worked well. I feel pretty good. Still have some wounds that will take time to heal but I think I’ll survive. The real question is how did Potter do?”

Hermione huffed. “We left before the final battle was over.”

Lucius frowned. “Slave Hermione, it sounds as though you might be questioning my authority.”

She flopped down onto the couch crossing her arms gruffly. “I think we should have stayed and fought.”

“We’ll your wrong. We did enough. You’ve been fighting since you were twelve and we’ve been fighting since Voldemort returned. We’re done fighting.”

Draco sat down next to her and pulled her to him. “It will be over soon.”

They sat in silence for a while before Lucius, Severus and Draco all grabbed at their arms at the same time. Narcissa jumped to her feet. “Are you being called?” She asked in a panic.

Draco pulled his sleeve up in time to see the snake wither on his arm. The mark went still and began to fade. It could still be seen but it wasn’t as dark as before. Hermione’s eyes went wide “Does that mean he’s dead?”

Lucius and Severus rolled up their sleeves as well but their marks were still pretty prominent. Naricissa frowned “What does that mean?”

“It probably means that Lucius and I have been marked longer and have performed more dark magic then Draco.”

Hermione reach up to her collar. “Does that mean the spell has been broken?”

Lucius frowned and looked to Severus. “I think maybe you were correct, I don’t feel any different.”

Hermione blanched. “Of course he was correct but correct about what?”

“Hermione, Voldemort used my wand to bind you to me.”

“Yeah, I know but what does that mean?”

“It means that the wand did the binding Voldemort used it but it was my wand and the magic still stands.”

Hermione whitened even further, the color running from her face as she stared into space as if she were reading the spell again. “But this is supposed to be over, Lucius. You’re not supposed to still have power over me.”

“Hermione you need to calm down. You’re forgetting who you are.”

Hermione took a deep breath. Nodding she stood and started for the door. “Where are you going Pet?” Lucius asked having the feeling that she was running away.

Hermione paused thinking ‘why did he have to use that name’. “I need some time alone. I’m just going for a walk.” She said without addressing any of them directly. Lucius approached her wearily. He placed his hand on her shoulder to turn her around but she jerked it away from him. “Don’t touch me.” She snapped at him.

Lucius pulled his hand away trying to curb his own anger with her. Taking a deep calming breath he said “you may go, however I forbid you from leaving the manor. I forbid you from contacting anyone. No on second thought I forbid you from doing any magic at all until the ministry comes to see us.”

Hermione gasped shocked that he would use his influence in such a way so soon after the realization that her nightmare may have no end. She fingered her wand that was in a side holster. It was useless to her now. She would never use it again. The Malfoy’s would strip her of her ability to do magic just because she was muggle born. She drew it out of the holster and turned pointing it at Lucius. Draco and Narcissa were both on their feet pulling their wands free to defend him. Hermione looked at her wand in her hand and thrust it forward flat on to his chest. His hand came up and covered hers taking the wand from her. She whimpered at his touch. Even now, with her being so upset, his touch was still gentle as though he loved her. “May I go now please Master?” She said trying to keep her voice as even as possible but knowing that he could hear her tears rising.

“Yes Pet, It’s been a long emotional day. I want you to go to my room and bathe. Then dress in proper witches robes.”

Hermione marched out of the room closing the door behind her. Once she was out of ear shot she ran to his rooms crying.

“Wow, I thought she’d freak out more than that.” Draco said sitting back down.

“She was freaking out. She was barely holding herself together. She’s been coached for the past few weeks on how to behave, she did rather well.” Severus said.

Lucius looked at the wand and said “for a brief second I thought she was going to use this against me.”

“Me too.” Draco said sighing in relief.

Narcissa sighed. “When will all this be over?”

“What are you talking about, My Love? It is over. The Dark Lord is dead. We survived we get to go on with our lives.”

Draco sunk back down on to the couch “I think what Mother is referring to is when will the ministry come and take us away? You said that you forbid Hermione from using magic till they come, surely you expect them to do that.”

“Did you talk to McGonagall before you left?” Severus asked.

“Yes but Shacklebolt was with her and wasn’t so easily persuaded.”

“Once they see the book in my office they will come for yours and hopefully an explanation. I’m hoping that enough of my people will still be around to say what really happened but if not we still have Hermione.”

Draco laughed. “right the girl that we just imprisoned in our home by binding her magic.”

Lucius frowned. “She doesn’t want to leave. She was just upset about the biding spell being done wrong, once she’s had a chance to think about it she’ll be ok.”

“I hope you are right. I was really hoping she would stay even after the spell was broken.”

“I was hoping the same it’s been nice having another woman in the house.”

Lucius sighed “I’m sure once she thinks things over she’ll see that this is where she belongs, spell or not she belongs to us. And I for one will do whatever it takes to persuade her of that.”

Draco said as he stood. “That bath idea sounds good to me. I think I’ll go and do that and then rest a little before dinner is served.”


	14. Hermione's new home

Hermione sat in the bath trying to relax and clear her mind. The water was hot and making her aching muscles relax but her mind wasn’t cooperating. One thought would lead to another. The lavender scent in the bubble bath made her think about Lavender Brown who she had seen dead at Hogwarts. Her thoughts shifted to other people that she had seen dead including Remus and Tonks. She sighed thinking about how they married and the last time she had heard about them Tonks had been pregnant. Did they have a child now? Then her mind wandered to Ron and how she had always thought that they would marry but now she could see that what he really wanted was someone like his mother, a home maker. Hermione wanted more than that. She wasn’t even sure she’d want a house filled with children like Molly Weasley had had. Her thoughts moved to Molly losing one her children. She had seen Fred Weasley laid out not far from Remus and Tonks. The Weasley family, her adopted family, had stood together morning his loss. She had wanted to go to them and try to comfort them but Draco had held her back. She thought about the hurt look in Ron’s eye when he saw her with Malfoy. Her mind shifted to anger when she thought about how easily Ron had left them for a few weeks when he thought Hermione was treating on him with Harry. Of course it was the Horcrux making them so crazy but that wasn’t the first time the Ron had falsely accused her over relationships with other people.

Thinking back on her time at Hogwarts she had never even given the ‘pureblood agenda’ a chance. She had always thought they were just a bunch of bigoted assholes for not want to share their world with muggles. Ron and many of the other blood traitors had fostered that belief in her. Now that she had spent some time with them she realized that they weren’t that bad, that what they really wanted was to keep their world a secret and keep their customs and traditions intact. The muggle world was encroaching on them and changing their lives. They were being exposed and once the muggles got wind of this separate world they would want to be part of it. Witch hunts would start happening again whenever something slightly unexplained happened. Healers would be forced to work overtime to save muggle lives, if they didn’t the muggle community would call them out and say that they were evil for having a cure for AIDS and not sharing it with the world or some other such ridiculousness as that. No the purebloods had followed Voldemort originally because he had promised them that his way would defend their way of life. He was an extremist and then once he came back he was insane but now he was dead and the muggles were still trying to see past the magical veil. She knew that she didn’t want their way of life changed. She wanted to be part of it even if she was just a slave in the oldest pureblood family in England she wanted to be there to help them preserve this part of the magical world.

She sighed thinking ‘but what of my plans for the future. I wanted to be somebody, do something that would change lives’. She had always thought she’d end up working at the ministry climbing her way up a ladder till she reached a position of authority. One where she could make real positive changes to the magical world. Now the only changes she could see were in how they dealt with muggles and muggleborns. They would need to be educated on what this wizarding society was all about. Positive education so that they could see how important it was too keep their way of life secret and hidden. But there would always be those that would want to bring their magic to the muggle world like the Reese family. They lived in a muggle neighborhood and allowed their magical children to play with muggle children. That was too risky. People like that needed to be dealt with so that they didn’t expose the wonders of the magical world to the muggle world. She laughed at that thought. She had been an outcast in her neighborhood because things happened around her. Now she understood why they happened but back then it was really hard for her. She had buried herself into her books and hadn’t really come out until Harry and Ron had finally accepted her as their friend. Once that had happened Dumbledore had taken more of an interest in her and gave her the memory book. And that’s what brought her to here.

Her bath water had gone cold by now as she pondered what she wanted to do with her life. She climbed out and dried herself off. Her hair was a mess again and she didn’t have a wand to try and fix it. She pulled it back into a messy bun taking one of Lucius hair ribbons and securing it behind her head. She went into the bedroom and sat on the bed thinking about all that had happened and what she was going to say when the ministry came to see her. They were definitely going to get an ear full about Voldemort’s influence on the Wizengamot and how she had seen several of them freely participating in the revels that Voldemort had held here and at other locations. She had also seen several ministry officials that weren’t actually death eaters celebrating with them. But what she really wanted to share with them was what she had learned about Dumbledore. She had never really thought about when it was happening but now that the Malfoys had pointed it out to her she could see how he frequently and knowingly put children at risk. At first she didn’t believe the Malfoys when they had said that Dumbledore knew all along where the chamber of secrets was and that he had hoped that Harry would be able to defeat Voldemort then not realizing that he had made other Horcruxs. But when she realized that he had been Headmaster long enough to know the school inside and out and that he knew Harry, Ron and herself had been trying to find the entrance and yet allowed them to do extremely dangerous things when they were just children. She herself had been petrified and laid up in the infirmary for weeks after that event. Well that had just ruined her faith in the man. She was almost glad he was dead.

Feeling exhausted and this line of thinking was getting her nowhere. She needed to decide what she wanted to do with herself. She had really liked it here except when she was in fear for her life. The Malfoys had been really good to her. She felt that they may actually love her but was that because they needed her to survive long enough to speak for them. She really didn’t know for sure. She wondered did she love them. She sighed and pulled the towel from her body and crawled into Lucius bed. She felt drained both physically and emotionally. So many people had died and now that Voldemort was dead she was supposed to be free but did she really want that. She didn’t know what she wanted. Laying on her side she inhaled the scent of her Master, his scent was intoxicating, she loved the smell. She curled around Lucius pillow thinking how could she ever think that she wanted to leave this place, did they really want her to stay or were they only thinking of their own freedom. With these thoughts she drifted off to sleep.

 

Several hours later Lucius stood in the ballroom with Draco and Severus. “I really want to get rid of this thing.” He said motioning to the throne that Voldemort had placed in the room.

“Couldn’t we just dismantle it? Or obliterate it or something.” Draco asked as they stood looking at the abomination.

Severus grunted “It’s got dark magic running through it. I’m not even sure why it’s still here as he made it appear only when he was in this room.”

“I want it gone. I don’t care how we do it but it’s got to go.”

Severus nodded “I’ll work on it. It will have to wait till I’m a little stronger.”

“Yes, it will wait for you. Plus I think the number of times that you’ve been on your knees before it you should be the one to dismantle it.” Severus frowned but nodded his understanding. They could hear the chimes from a floo call. Lucius frowned “I hadn’t expected them to come so soon.”

Severus frowned. “Something must be wrong.”

Lucius stood in front of the fire place and opened the floo. “Lord Malfoy?” The voice of Mr. Shacklebolt came through the fire place.

“Yes Mr. Shacklebolt.”

“Ah, good “I would like to speak to you if I may come through for a moment.”

Lucius frowned the man had never before entered his house and suddenly he’s speaking to him as though they were more than acquaintances. “Who else will be joining you?” He asked smirking at Draco who was scowling at him.

“Ah, yes I think it would be prudent if I were to come with others don’t you?”

Draco looked at the door. “Father there are people at the gate. Did you let them through?”

Lucius nodded. “I know Draco and I did. They are Hermione’s men Simmons and Balinchk I think. Have an elf inform your mother and Hermione that we have guests and open the door for them. They will need to escort her down to us when she’s ready.”

“Mr. Shaklebolt forgive me, yes it would be. The floo is open please come through.”

Two aura’s stepped into the room with their wands drawn. Kingsley Shacklebolt came through next followed by Aurthur Weasley.

Lucius didn’t appear to be phased by the presence of the Aura’s with their wands drawn. “Gentlemen.” He greeted them “Please have a seat. What can we do for you?” He asked as if it were any normal day.

Shacklebolt motioned to the aura’s and they holstered their wands “Lord Malfoy, we’ve actually come to speak with Ms. Hermione Granger. I’m told she’s being held here and we would like to see her.” He said as he took a seat.

Draco entered with the two men. The aura’s reached for their wands again. Lucius smiled “If you would excuse me a minute I have another piece of business to attend to.” He stood leaving Arthur and Kingsley looking slightly shocked. “Simmons, Balinchk. It’s good of you to return.” Severus stood with Lucius as he spoke to the men. “I appreciate your loyalty to my family.” Both men nodded smiling. “We will be in need of escorts in the next few weeks or months. I would like to offer you both a position at the manor.”

“It would be our pleasure to continue protecting your family, Sir.” Balinchk said to him with Simmons nodding in agreement.

“Good, Slave Hermione is preparing herself for a meeting right now, please escort her down.” He pulled her wand from his belt. “She will need this. Tell her that I said she is free to use it.”

Lucius turned and winked at Severus and then looked at the men who were waiting. “Gentlemen, Slave Hermione will be with us shortly.”

“By what right do you find that you call her slave?” Arthur weasley asked indignantly.

“It has come to our attention that she has been held here against her will for the past several months.” Kingsley Shacklebolt stated.

Severus shook his head. “It is true that she was captured and held prisoner by Voldemort and his loyalist. Lucius Malfoy defended her and was given the task to keep her inline. Voldemort used Lord Malfoy’s wand to bind her to him as a slave. She has been living here under his family’s protection ever since then.”

“But she was a prisoner?” Shacklebolt asked trying to get a sense of what was really going on.

“Yes, and she willing allowed the binding in order to save us.” Draco added not really liking where the interrogations were going.

Narcissa entered and joined the men. The aura’s were still covered in dirt from the battle and Mr. Shacklebolt and Mr. Weasley looked clean but there clothing was disheveled. She pursed her lips in annoyance and briefly wondered if her home would ever be clean again. “Ah Narcissa my dear. These men have come to speak to our Hermione.”

Narcissa frowned “So soon, don’t you have other things to do?” She asked thinking that it was odd that they’d come the day the battle ended.

“Now Narcissa, they are concerned about Hermione.”

Narcissa nodded “She was sleeping when the Tecks came to me. She is dressing and will be down in a moment.” She smirked at Lucius and said “Lucius, her men returned.”

“Yes, I know. I’ve employed them as escorts.”

Narcissa smiled. “I’m glad they survived.”

Arthur narrowed his eyes “A lot of good people died today.” He said angrily.

Narcissa frowned “a lot of good people have died throughout this war. We are fortunate to not have been among those that have fallen.”

Hermione entered followed closely by her escorts. She had changed into the green and silver robe set that had he had favored but she complained looked to slytherin. She had used her wand to alter the dress so that it fit to her curves perfectly. Her hair was in the braids again but now a bun, done in the same knot work, sat at the base of her neck. She presented herself as well as any pureblood women could. Severus and the Malfoys remained seated as she entered the room Skacklebolt and Weasley stood as she approached. Hermione took a deep breath before she bowed to Lucius. “Master.” She said proudly.

Lucius smirked. She had thought it through; he knew she’d come around again. “Pet. These men are here to speak with you.”

Hermione nodded in understanding. “Gentlemen, what can I do for you?”

Shacklebolt cleared his throat. “Lord Malfoy, I’d like to speak to her in private.”

Lucius stood with Severus, Draco and Narcissa following his cue. “I will allow that, however her escorts will remain in the room.”

“That’s not really private is it?” Arthur Weasley said sounding flustered by how strange everyone was acting.

“It’s as private as you will get in my home.” Lucius stated firmly. He addressed the escorts directly. “You do not need to concern yourself with what is being said, however they are not to remove her from my home by force. If she chooses to go willingly do not stop her.” Simmons took a position by the door while Balinchk stood by the fire place. Lucius turned to Hermione and smiled “you look lovely My Pet. Dinner will be serves as soon as you are done with your meeting.”

She gave him a faint smile “thank you Master.” Once the family had cleared the room she turned back to the waiting men. “What would you like to speak to me about?”

Arthur groaned “what is going on here? What have they done to you?”

Kingsley held up his hand “Please Arthur let me. Ms. Granger. Are you being held against your will?”

Hermione shook her head no “I was a prisoner but when I realized that the Malfoy family was working on the inside against Voldemort I willingly allowed myself to be bound to Lucius Malfoy. I now belong to the Malfoy family.”

“The war is over Ms. Granger. Harry Potter has defeated the Dark Lord.”

Hermione smiled “Yes. I heard isn’t it wonderful.”

“You can leave this place. You don’t have to hold to the pretense that you belong to him anymore.” Arthur said thinking that she must be brainwashed to be behaving this way.

Hermione sighed. “I really like it here. I want to stay. They want me to stay too.” She frowned thinking of something. “Tecks.” She said out loud. The house elf appeared. “Would you please ask Master Lucius for a copy of the spell that Voldemort used to bind me?” The house elf bowed and disappeared from the room. “I am happy here. I think I can be of service here. However, I would like the spell to be examined further. We were in a rush when we researched it because Voldemort was returning and threatening to kill Lucius and me if he didn’t find a way to make it so that I couldn’t escape as Harry and Ron did. The spell read as though when the caster died the spell would be broken. Voldemort had possession of Lucius wand and used that to bind me to him. Now that Voldemort is dead the spell is still in place. It has something to do with wand magic. I don’t mind but it would be nice to know what other side effects might come about. Like what if he dies will I die too?”

The house elf reappeared with a copy of the scroll in hand. “Master Lucius had a copy prepared for you already.” He handed the scroll to her.

She held it up and read it. “I know you’ll be busy with other things but when you get the ministry cleaned up maybe someone could look into this for us.” She handed the scroll to Kingsley.

He looked at the spell. “It required the blood of a virgin. That’s illegal.”

“It is Voldemort that we are talking about. He didn’t exactly follow the rules as it were.” Hermione said casually.

“Yes but the spell wouldn’t work without a virgin?” Arthur said reading over Kingsley’s shoulder.

Hermione huffed “why does everyone question that? I was at the time that the spell was cast a virgin but during the casting that ended. If you could spare me some embarrassment and use your imagination to figure out how that happened I’d appreciate it.” She looked over to Mr. Simmons “I’m sure one or both of my escorts can confirm that.” Both men nodded. “So what else can I do for you?”

“What that’s it? You’re going to stay here?” Hermione nodded. “Hermione, you can leave now you don’t have to stay here. We’ll find someone to break the spell. Come back to the burrow and we’ll help you put all of this behind you.”

Hermione Shrugged. “You have things that you need to deal with at the burrow. My place is here.” She stated firmly “Mr. Shacklebolt, did you find the ledger in Headmaster Snape’s office?”

“We haven’t had a chance to look for it yet.”

“Well I would suggest that you do and soon. The ledger has a list of most of the people who were loyalist. There is another list here of people who have been forced into aid and those that joined willingly. There’s also a ruff accounting of what they did while in service to Voldemort. That has to be done before you start trialing people for being supporters. There’s a few Wizengamot members who were willingly supporting Voldemort. If you can believe it they have even been here celebrating the orders failures.”

Shacklebolt gasped “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure. Once Voldemort was confident in Lucius control over me he forced Lucius to bring me to all the meetings. Some were here and some at other houses. I’m sure he knows the name of the other places. Draco has been keeping a list since Voldemort returned. Severus helped him with it at Hogwarts and then the past year he’s been keeping it himself here at the manor.”

“I’m not sure I really can believe all of this Hermione. I work with most of the Wizengamot daily.”

Hermione shrugged. “I know I have heard them talk about you. It’s true though every word of it.” She stood both men followed her lead. “I’m sure you’ll want a full statement from myself and the Malfoy family.” She said as she guided them towards the fire place. “I’ll inform my Master to expect your call.” She stood next to the fire place looking at them expectantly.

Mr. Shacklebolt cleared his throat “Well yes of course.” He said feeling slightly flustered to be demised in such a way. “I would like to thank you for taking your time to speak with us, Ms. Granger.”

Hermione nodded “Of course Mr. Shacklebolt.”

Arthur groaned “We can’t leave her here.” He said to Kingsley pleading with him. Arthur grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the fire place. Simmons was half way across the room with his wand drawn before the aura’s even knew what was happening. Balinchk had his wand drawn and pointed at Arthur’s throat.

Hermione held her hand up staying the two escorts. The aura’s drew their wands but Simmon and Balinchk already had the upper hand. “Gentleman please there’s been enough violence today. Please put your wands away.” Hermione pulled her arm out of Arthur’s grasp. Balinchk growled at him before he lowered his wand. “Mr. Shacklebolt, I believe we are done here. Now if you please, I do not wish to keep my family waiting any longer.”

Kingsley took Arthur’s arm and guided him to the fire place. “Good evening, Ms. Granger, we will be in touch.” The fire flare with green flames as all four men left the room.

Balichk growled at her. “That man laid his hand on you.”

Hermione smirked at him. “I know and you stopped him, good job.”

“It would have been better if he hadn’t even had the chance to do so.” Simmons added.

Lucius stood in the door way “Is everything ok?”

Hermione smiled “Of course Master.”

Balinchk moaned “Weasley tried to push her through the floo.”

Lucius glowered at her “That doesn’t sound ok to me girl. Never mind that now, our dinner is waiting.” He looked at the two men. “Have you taken time to eat?” Both men shook their heads no. “Tecks.” The elf appeared a second later. “Please see that these two men are fed dinner.”

She followed him into the dining room and waited for her family to take their seats before she knelt in her place next to Lucius.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's my story thanks for reading it to the end I hope you enjoyed it. I have started work on part two which I'm trying to write From Harry's POV but I like Hermione's story so much I keep catching myself writing it from Her POV. I'm about eight chapters into His story. It's starts with his journey the morning after and it's kind dark. I haven't totally decided if he's going to be a good Harry or a Dark Harry yet
> 
> However, that story is being put on hold as both of my manuscripts have come back from my editors and need work before they can go to the publishers. I'm so excited. Wish me luck that the publishers like my stories and give me a contract. The one seems promising but the other is iffy.


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